Clinical ResearchDiet and colorectal cancer: An investigation of the lectin/galactose hypothesis☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Study population
Histologically confirmed colorectal cancer cases who resided within the Liverpool postal area were identified from the monthly notifications to the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Registry. These include all cases diagnosed by the histopathology departments serving all Health Service and private hospitals in the counties of Merseyside and Cheshire. The population covered by this study includes 1,276,092 people residing in 62 postal codes (Office of Census and Population Studies data). The
Results
Five hundred twelve cases and 512 matched controls were interviewed with an age range of 36–100 years and a median age of 67 years. Fifty-seven percent were men and 78% of cases had cancer affecting the left colon or rectum (Table 1).Age (yr) 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–74 75–84 85–94 >95 All cases (M/F) 2/2 19/5 48/39 115/83 83/59 23/33 1/0 Left-sided and rectal (M/F) 2/2 17/2 41/31 91/66 68/43 18/18 1/0 Right-sided (M/F) 0/0 2/3 7/8 24/17 15/16 5/15 0/0
Discussion
This study shows dose-related protective effects against colon cancer for consumption of dietary NSP galactose and nonlegume green vegetables, whereas total fiber consumption, assessed as nonstarch polysaccharide, showed no significant effect. This provides further support for the hypothesis that the protective effect of fruit and vegetable consumption may be mediated via specific components such as galactose and isothiocyanates rather than simply via fiber content.
The protective effect of
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Cited by (58)
Dairy propionibacteria prevent the proliferative effect of plant lectins on SW480 cells and protect the metabolic activity of the intestinal microbiota in vitro
2017, AnaerobeCitation Excerpt :Lectins are nonimmune proteins or glycoproteins that bind specifically to carbohydrate moieties expressed on the cell surface affecting their physiology in beneficial or detrimental ways according to the dose, the duration of exposure and other factors such as the glycosilation status of the epithelium [9]. Some lectins are mitogenic and influence human colonic epithelial cell proliferation [8,18–22,39,40]. This property may be relevant in some intestinal inflammatory and neoplastic conditions, in which lectin receptor expression is increased, allowing interaction with dietary lectins which would otherwise pass through the normal colon without binding [18,22,39,40].
Small molecule glycoconjugates with anticancer activity
2016, European Journal of Medicinal ChemistryBinding and stabilisation effects of glycodendritic compounds with peanut agglutinin
2015, International Journal of Biological MacromoleculesCitation Excerpt :Although plant lectins were the first to be identified, their role is still not completely established but they are implicated in plant defence mechanisms and plant symbiosis [14,15]. Their study is also medically relevant since, for example, there are indications of their role in cell proliferation [16,17] as well as of their potential in cancer treatment [18–24], while, in other cases, their possible allergenic effects are of interest, such as those associated with peanut agglutinin (PNA) [25]. Monosaccharide-lectin binding affinity is often weak (in the millimolar to micromolar range) but this affinity may be enhanced by exploiting the so-called “cluster glycoside effect” where there are multivalent interactions between lectin and ligands containing numerous copies of the same carbohydrate group [26–32].
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Address requests for reprints to: Professor Jonathan Rhodes, Department of Medicine, University of Liverpool, Duncan Building, Daulby Street, Liverpool L69 3 GA, England. e-mail: [email protected]; fax: (44) 151-706-5802.
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Supported by grant NWCR311, “Dietary consumption of peanuts, galactose-containing fruit and vegetable fibre and risk of colorectal cancer: a case control study,” from the North West of England Cancer Research Fund and by Medical Research Council Co-operative grant GR990432.