Project leader Cathie Martin reveals her dream: plant scientists can contribute innovative ways of looking and understanding the benefits of food in our diets
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Purple flour against breast cancer
Improving health with proper nutrition is presently considered one of the main goals of biomedical research. In this context, considering the increased impact of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, the promotion of prevention strategies is essential not only for individuals, but also for health systems in order to reduce the economic burden of chronic diseases.
Food and prevention are closely associated, especially when we talk about the Mediterranean diet. Antioxidants, substances that are found in many of the Mediterranean foods, are among the most important compounds helping the body. "They are capable of neutralizing the cell damage due to oxidation processes, the result of biochemical reactions in the body. - Explains Professor Maria Benedetta Donati of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy - These oxidation processes lead to inflammation and tissue aging. It is said, almost jokingly, that the aging of cells is a gradual process of rancidity due to the accumulation of oxidative damage. . Any method capable of preventing this process can therefore reduce aging ".
Antioxidants are increasingly the target of studies in the prevention of several chronic degenerative diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders.. " More and more - Donati continues – it is widely recognized that vascular and neurological degenerative diseases have a common basis, common cellular processes in which oxidation plays a role. According to recent evidences, in some forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, a diet rich in antioxidants can prevent, or delay, the progression of cognitive impairment. Moreover, oxidative stress is accentuated in ischemic cardiovascular diseases as a result of the shortage of blood supply in the affected areas".
Flavonoids are among the most active natural antioxidant compounds. . Over 4,000 of them are known, present in various foods. They are responsible, in large part, for the characteristic colors of plants, flowers and of some fruits. Now medical research is turning to these compounds with the hope of discovering new tools for diseases prevention.
IRCCS Neuromed Pozzilli is engaged on this front with the European ATHENA Project, an international collaboration among different research institutes, which share an interest for the study of these particular substances with a specific focus on anthocyanins. They are contained in many foods, especially in Sicilian blood oranges, blueberries, berries of currants, raspberries and eggplant. Red and blue are the colors that characterize foods rich in anthocyanins.
"Among the most interesting experimental results already obtained within the ATHENA project, we can mention the association, in experimental models, between anthocyanins intake and longevity or protection from metabolic disorders. - explains Donati – . Very interesting data were obtained, in addition, on the extension of the area of an experimental myocardial infarction. Indeed, in animals (rats) fed a diet enriched in anthocyanins the tissue damage around the ischemic injury was markedly reduced in comparison with controls; as if there was a reinforcement of defense mechanisms allowing the healthy tissue surrounding the ischemic insult to react. "
Coming to normal eating habits in humans, ATHENA researchers found that consumption of blood orange juice reduces oxidative stress in patients with metabolic disorders, protects DNA from oxidative damage and may reduce cardiovascular risk factors to the same extent, as other anthocyanin-rich foods(fruits and vegetables).
Athena has set one of the biggest human studies on anthocyanins and health. The human trial has been conducted within women receiving radiotherapy after surgery for breast cancer.
Among side effects, this treatment can cause skin inflammations both short and long term. In these conditions it is not always possible to follow a certain type of diet due to the interference caused by radio and chemotherapy treatments. Researchers from the Athena study have then tried to enhance the defensive potential of these people through dietary supplementation of a special flour obtained from the cob of a new purple corn specifically developed within the project. This high anthocyanin-rich supplement during radiotherapy should limit the side effects of radiation on the skin. The skin-damage is detected by a cutometer, a sensitive device able to measure the magnitude of the damage provoked on the skin by radiation.