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Despite a cuisine laden with high-fat foods, the rates of some cancers are
lower in France than in America. Also, the incidence of coronary heart disease
among the French is about 40 percent of that suffered by Americans.
This inconsistency -- dubbed the "French paradox" -- intrigued scientists, who
suspected that a taste for wine with meals was somehow protecting the French
from the ravages of disease.
Now, Carolina researchers Minnie Holmes-McNary and Albert S. Baldwin, Jr., of
the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, have found a clue to the puzzle.
Apparently, the French can thank trans-Resveratrol (Res), a substance found in
red wine, for protecting them.
A few years ago, scientists at the University of Illinois identified the
anticancer and anti-inflammatory attributes of Res, which is also abundant in
mulberries, raspberries, muscadine grapes and peanuts. Holmes-McNary, a
nutritional biologist, and Baldwin, a biology professor, have demonstrated how
Res controls gene expression and renders cancer cells vulnerable to the
protective mechanisms of the body. Their findings were reported in the July
issue of Cancer Research.
Working with cultured cells from humans and rats, the researchers found that
Res acts as a switch, activating a delicate chemical cascade that inhibits the
activation of the protein NF-kappa B and NF-kappa B-dependent gene expression.
Res seems to exert an inhibitory force on a related protein, I-kappa B, which
regulates the activation of NF-kappa.
"Using Res, we were able to promote apoptosis, a process that the body uses to
kill cancer and other defective cells," Holmes-McNary said. "In the absence of
Res, the cancer cells continued to survive."
Baldwin first reported several years ago that NF-kappa B appears to protect
cultured cancer cells from attack by anticancer chemicals. This may explain why
some cancer cells withstand chemotherapy, becoming impervious to the chemical
onslaught.
Holmes-McNary's and Baldwin's findings have implications for heart disease
because Res also inhibited the NF-kappa B-dependent gene MCP-1, which is
involved in the development of atherosclerosis.
Plans are under way to reproduce the studies using rodents. If those go well,
Holmes-McNary may conduct clinical trials in several years. "This is very
exciting work because we believe it explains how diet modulates changes at the
molecular level," she said.
Holmes-McNary's advice to increase consumption of foods rich in Res is music to
the ears of David Fussell, the owner of Duplin Winery in Rose Hill, which is
the largest cooperative of scuppernong grape growers in North Carolina. The
scuppernong, a muscadine grape that is native to North Carolina, tops the list
of foods with high Res content.
The winery is gearing up to produce supplements made from the grape's seeds and
hulls, where the Res concentration is greatest. "It's a win-win situation,"
Fussell said. "It will mean a great deal to our farmers and the health of
people." Over the past three years, he has noted a marked increase in sales of
his wines, as the beneficial properties of Res and the scuppernong's high Res
content became known. The supplements, which should be available this fall,
could increase the price farmers receive for scuppernong grapes by 48
percent.
Provided by Graduate Studies and Research
Writer: Janet Wagner
Editor: Neil Caudle
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