New drug made from potatoes, tomatoes can cure cancer

POLAND: Several cancers are treatable if diagnosed at early stages. However, new treatment modalities are being discovered regularly by scientists and researchers so that more effective drugs can be produced against the disease.

Researchers have now tested the possibility of using glycoalkaloids for devising new anti-cancer drugs. Glycoalkaloids are present in night-shade plants such as potatoes and tomatoes.

Statistics claim the recent mortality rates with respect to different forms of cancer have shown a decreasing trend. In order to improve diagnosis and treatment planning scientists have now explored the realm of plant-based remedies.

Glycoalkaloids and their mechanism of action against cancer cells is the subject of this study, which was researched by scientists in Poland and published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.

Lead study author of this study Magdalena Winkiel, a student at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, said:

“Scientists around the world are still searching for drugs [that] will be lethal to cancer cells but at the same time safe for healthy cells. It is not easy despite the advances in medicine and powerful development of modern treatment techniques.”

Mechanism of Action:

Glycoalkaloids have been known to possess cancer cell-killing properties. For this study, researchers used plants from the nightshade family such as Potatoes and Tomatoes, to explore the following Gylacoalkaloids and their effects on plants.

1. solanine
2. chaconine
3. solasonine
4. solamargine
5. tomatine
    

The research illustrated the glycoalkaloids encourage cancer cell death through numerous pathways such as Apoptosis. It concluded that along with several other components currently being used to diminish cancer, glycoalkaloids can in used in conjuction to provide a stronger, more efficient drug against oncological diseases