Capitalizing on the Benefits of Berries as a Treatment for Cancer

It is widely known that berries are healthy, offering many benefits to the consumer.  Berries serve as antioxidant sources to help prevent the action of free radicals in the body, which can have many destructive effects, such as oxidative damage.  Berries also provide essential nutrients necessary in the human diet.  These benefits can be substantiated through experimentation to investigate the human molecular pathways affected by the nutrients contained in these fruits.  Our lab is particularly interested in the nutraceutical effects of the plant phenolic, gallic acid, and its potential role in preventing human stomach cancer.  Gallic acid is a secondary plant metabolite found in blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  It has previously been shown to induce cell cycle arrest in various types of cancer, including lung, breast, and colon cancers.  The present study leverages microarray analysis, qPCR, and flow cytometry to study the effect that gallic acid has on both immortalized gastric cancer cell lines and freshly obtained primary human stomach cancers.  We have found that gallic acid at concentrations similar to what would be experienced through the normal consumption of berries induces G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest in human gastric cancer cells.  Gallic acid also suppressed additional cellular pathways that would normally allow the gastric cancer to proliferate and invade other tissues.  Our data provides molecular evidence that implicates the consumption of berries may be able to prevent the formation and growth of many types of gastrointestinal cancers.