Reishi Mushroom causes the destruction of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma cells

Reishi Mushroom extract was screened for its anti-proliferative activity using 26 human cancer cell lines. It was found that Reishi Mushroom inhibited the life cycle of the cancer cells especially right before or during there division into new cancer cells. In checking for the ability to kill the cancer cells it was found that Reishi caused the destruction of the myeloma (U937 cells, RPM18226 cells), leukemia (HL-60), and lymphoma (Blin-1 cells) cells assessed for this from 21% to 92%. The research was performed at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, and the Division of Hematology-Oncology, University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany, and appears in the January 16th, 2006 issue of the journal Leukemia Research.

Commentary by Jerry Hickey, R.Ph.

Hopefully none of us will encounter an agent as destructive as mustard gas, but it is good for us to note that these particular antioxidants are very lung friendly and that available oral supplement levels have shown protective activity in research.

Resveratrol may fight multiple myeloma and other B cell malignancies

Resveratrol has potent cancer preventing effects against various tumors and it is the Trans-Resveratrol isomer that has all the anticancer activity. In order for cancer cells to duplicate themselves and go through their rapid multiplication they must go through the cell cycle where they create copies of themselves. In this study it was found that Resveratrol rapidly causes human cancerous B cells including myeloma cells to stop their cell cycle at the S-phase. This is very important - the S-phase is when DNA (genetic material) is copied. The greater the concentration of Resveratrol and the longer the exposure, the better the results. Resveratrol killed the cancer cells by stimulating Caspase-3 activity; this is a cellular executioner that can slaughter cancer cells. These results suggest that Resveratrol has a potential place in patients with B cell cancers including multiple myeloma. The study was performed at the Division of Hematology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, and is published in the January 18th, 2006 issue of the journal Biochemical Pharmacology.