They reported that their research into prostate cancer had shown that the spicy molecule “lodges in the membranes near the surface,” they advised in their article in the American Chemical Society's “The Journal of Physical Chemistry B,” adding, “add enough of it, and the capsaicin essentially causes the membranes to come apart. With additional research, this insight could help lead to novel tools against cancer or other conditions.”

In other peppery anti-cancer news, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researcher Dr. Kenneth Westover and his team have uncovered the chemistry behind the Indian long pepper's impact on cancer.


“We are hopeful that our structure will enable additional drug development efforts to improve the potency of PL for use in a wide range of cancer therapies,” Westover, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Radiation Oncology and member of the UT Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a statement. “This research is a spectacular demonstration of the power of x-ray crystallography.”

The work, which appeared in the “Journal of Biological Chemistry,” used X-ray crystallography to show how the chemical Piperlongumine (PL) turns into hPL after it is ingested.

That agent shuts down the GSTP1 gene, which creates a detoxification enzyme often found in excess in tumors.

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