I have mentioned fenugreek here and there, especially in my “Random stuff” post published on January 20 2011 (http://margaret.healthblogs.org/2011/01/20/random-stuff/, scroll down the page). Until now, I thought it mostly had very strong antiviral activity and might help prevent getting a cold. But I didn’t really do any research on it…
Then a few days ago, after (quelle coincidence!) making a super tasty, fast and easy turkey dish using fenugreek seeds and other Indian spices, I came across an “open access” 2009 Johns Hopkins study showing that fenugreek inhibits TGF-beta: http://goo.gl/4rPSs Spelled out, this acronym = “transforming growth factor beta.” That caught my attention. But why should we care about TGF-beta, especially since the cell lines tested in this study weren’t myeloma ones? Simple. Because TGF-beta is involved in myeloma, too. In a bad way, as you can imagine…
Just to give you an idea, this 2011 study shows that TGF-beta plays a role in the suppression of bone formation in MM bone lesions: http://goo.gl/luceN Osteoclasts and TGF-beta stroll around, hand in hand…
As we have seen with soooooo many other spices, Ayurveda has used fenugreek seeds forever and ever to treat a bunch of different ailments, including arthritis (bingo!). But what about its anticancer potential? Well, the Johns Hopkins study tells us that one of its active ingredients is diosgenin. If you do a search for diosgenin and cancer (not myeloma, though) in PubMed you will find more than 100 studies…
And among them, you will find this 2006 study demonstrating that diosgenin INHIBITS OSTEOCLASTOGENESIS: http://goo.gl/jcYLw And a whole bunch of other stuff involved in myeloma progression, such as NF-kappaB, COX-2, cyclin D, the Bcl family members, etc. etc. etc. (etc.). Etc. ETC!
The above series of inhibitions is confirmed in this 2012 abstract, too: http://goo.gl/O6IVV Quote (my emphasis): the in-vitro and in-vivo studies in the last few decades have demonstrated that some phytochemicals derived from ‘natural products’ such as fruits, vegetables and certain spices, referred to as chemopreventive agents, including capsaicin, trans-anethole, thymoquinone, diosgenin, allicin, can not only reduce the risk of acquiring specific cancer but also have been shown to suppress cancer cell proliferation, inhibit growth factor signaling pathways, induce apoptosis, inhibit nuclear factor-kB, AP-1, Akt, MAPK, Wnt, Notch, p53, AR, ER, and JAK-STAT, etc., activation pathways, inhibit angiogenesis, suppress the expression of antiapoptotic proteins, and inhibit cyclooxygenase-2.
All those acronyms, from NF-kappaB to JAK-STAT, actively protect and help our myeloma cells survive…And did you notice the presence of Wnt and Notch in that list? Remember myeloma stem cells? Yup…
Very important note. According to the Johns Hopkins study, fenugreek goes after cancer cells…only cancer cells. That is, it totally ignores healthy cells. That’s certainly not the first time we’ve read something like that, eh…and I’m sure it won’t be the last, either…I hope our medical community will pay attention this time, though…
And here I thought that fenugreek would just protect me from getting a nasty bug…
Hah!