Resveratrol: Safely Making Chemo Better
Chemotherapy can cause many side effects, and it can lead to drug resistance. A powerful natural antioxidant can help solve both those chemo ending problems.
Resveratrol is a powerful antioxidant found in red grapes, dark chocolate, peanuts, mulberry skin and herbs like Japanese knotwood.
Resveratrol has shown many benefits, including benefits for cancer. It is one of the most effective natural compounds found in food for killing cancer cells, and it selectively kills the crucial cancer stem cells (Int J Mol Sci 2015;16:15727-42). Resveratrol may inhibit cancer through its anti- inflammatory, antioxidant and detoxifying activities.
Now a new study points to an important new use. Doxorubicin and cisplatin are two very commonly used chemotherapy drugs. However, they have serious side effects, and cancers can become resistant to them. Both problems can create situations where people have to stop their chemotherapy.
This just published review analyzed the research to see if resveratrol could make doxorubicin and cisplatin work better while reducing their side effects.
It could! Giving resveratrol with chemotherapy accomplished three desirable results. First, it prevented resistance to the chemotherapy drugs.
Second, it enhanced the effects of the chemo drugs by potentiating the induction of apoptosis, the safest way to kill a cancer cell, and the induction of cell cycle arrest. Resveratrol enhances the sensitivity of cancer cells to the two chemotherapy drugs. It also inhibits migration and metastasis of cancer cells.
Third, resveratrol ameliorates the side effects of the chemo, including side effects on the liver, kidney, brain and testes.
This important review shows that resveratrol can protect against the side effects of chemo and resistance to it while making it work better and protecting against the devastating side effects.
Curr Mol Pharmacol. 2022 Apr 15. doi: 10.2174/1874467215666220415131344
