Marine cartilage has uric acid lowering effect on gout relief

According to Prof. Sato, marine cartilage is rich in biologically active components such as chondroitin sulfate, protease inhibitor and growth factor, etc.  Based on the research findings from several animal experiments and clinical trials, it is concluded that marine cartilage may produce beneficial effects on patients suffering from gout and tumor.  In order to discover the active components in marine cartilage that produces the uric acid lowering effect, Prof. Sato employed a technique called “autofocusing” to fractionate the biological components.  “Autofocusing” uses an electrolyte formed by water, acid and base. A pH gradient is formed by electrophoresis of the sample without any carrier ampholyte. 

In the animal experiment conducted by Prof. Sato, a pentapeptide YLDNY, which was obtained from the protease digestion of the basic and hydrophobic peptide fraction of marine cartilage, was found to be one of the uric acid-lowering components by inhibiting xanthine oxidase, a key enzyme of uric acid synthesis.  As for the experiment on cancer cells, Prof. Sato observed that the protein moiety in the marine cartilage proteoglycan could suppress the progress of chemical-induced pancreatic carcinogenesis by inhibiting the activity of MMP-9, one of the matrix metalloproteases active in tumor invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis.

Dietary DNA has effects on inhibition of cancer cells

Prof. Thomas Leung of PolyU, who is currently conducting a research project on the effects of dietary DNA on cancer cells, shared with the audience the preliminary findings.  In the research project, Prof. Leung focused on investigating three most commonly occurring cancers, namely gastric (stomach) cancer, colorectal cancer and lung cancer.  Under laboratory conditions, Prof. Leung added neutralized DNA solution to cancer cells and then monitored the cell viability, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis of cancer cells.  He found that dietary DNA could decrease cancer cell numbers in cultured cancer cells.  Besides, dietary DNA stopped cancer cells from cycling, and held cancer cells in a particular cell cycle phase, as well as induces cell death. Prof. Leung mentioned that the initial findings are encouraging and suggested further experiments on animals.