Apples for Health- Fiber activates a cell to fight cancer

Fiber activates a cell to fight cancer

AUGUSTA, Ga., April 15 (UPI) -- Dietary fiber activates not one, but two molecular actions that can stave off cancer, U.S. researchers said.

The study, published in Cancer Research, found fiber-eating bacteria in the colon produce a metabolite -- butyrate -- that activates cell receptors -- GPR109A -- that not only trigger cell death but also shut down an inflammation-causing protein.

"We know the receptor is silenced in cancer but it's not like the gene goes away," study corresponding author Dr. Vadivel Ganapathy of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta said in a statement.
Butyrate affects another cancer halting mechanism. In 2004, Medical College of Georgia researchers identified another gene -- SLC5A8 -- that transports butyrate inside cells where it inhibits the enzyme HDAC -- key to cancer's uncontrolled cell growth.

"If you block HDAC, you can kill the cancer cell," Ganapathy said. "Unfortunately, just like the newly found GPR109A receptor, cancer also silences the SLC5A8 butyrate transporter," Ganapathy said.

In his current study, the researcher said the receptor was silenced in 15 of 18 colon cancer patients.

Cancer shuts down the receptor by chemically modifying its gene through a process called DNA methylation. Cancer patients are likely to need something to ensure the receptor gets activated by butyrate, researchers said.