Cancer & Fucoidan
Av: PubMed  2010-02-04 17:28

The Fucoidan Cancer Compilation Report 
Scientific Summary Compilation from http://pubmed.gov

Review of 15 Major Studies Involving Cancer and Fucoidan
Fucoidan –Metastasis Related Studies
Fucoidan-Anti-Tumor Related Studies
Fucoidan-Immune System Related Studies
Taken From The National Library Of Medicine
FUCOIDAN - Metastasis Related Studies

In a study done at Fukuoka University, Japan, researchers discovered that fucoidan inhibited the invasion of cancer cells.  They discovered that fucoidan specifically inhibited the attachement of cancer cells to laminin.  (Soeda S. et al. “Aminated fucoidan promotes the invasion of 3 LL cells through reconstituted basement membrane: its possible mechanism of action,” Cancer Letter, 1994 Sep: 85(1):133-8.)

  At the National Institute of Lung Disease and Tuberculoses, in Warsaw, Poland, researchers discovered that lectin-like adhesion molecules situated on pulmonary cell surfaces are at least partially responsible for the adhesion of sarcoma cells.  By adding fucoidan to the incubated cells, the sarcoma cells were inhibited from adhering to the healthy cells.  In vivo, it was discovered that administering fucoidan significantly inhibited the settling of metastatic sarcoma cells in the lungs of mice.  Basically, when lectin-like adhesion sights are blocked by glycoconjugates, like fucoidan, tumor cell colonization can be significantly inhibited.  (Roszkowski W et al.  “Blocking of lectin-like adhesion molecules on pulmonary cells inhibits lung sarcomaL-1 colonization in BALB/c-mice,” Experientia, 1989 Jun:45(6:584-8.)

  In another study done at Fukuoka University, by the Faculty of Pharmeceutical Sciences, researches found that fucoidan is a “potent inhibitor of tumor cell invasion.”  Specifically, fucoidan inhibited the ability of the tumor cells to bind with laminin.  Researchers further speculated that fucoidan blocked the adhesion by inhibiting the actual physical interaction between tumor cells and laminin.  (Soeda S et al. “Inhibitory effect of oversulfated fucoidan on invasion thgrough reconstituted basement membrane by murine Lewis lung carcinoma,” Jpn J Cancer Research, 1994 Nov:85(11)44-50.)

 At Mie University, in Tsu, Japan, researchers experimented with lung metastasis induced by Lewis lung carcinoma.  By injecting fucoidan after the removal of the primary tumor, metastasis was inhibited.  The results of this study show that fucoidan may have clinical value in the prevention of cancer metastasis.  (Itoh, H. et al.  “Immunological analysis of inhibition of lung metastases by fucoidan (GIV-A) prepared from brown seaweed Sargassum thunbergii,” Anticancer Research, 1995 Sep-Oct: 15(5B):1937-47.)
  In a study done at the Saint Louis Hospital, in Paris, France, researchers discovered that thrombospondin is an adhesive glycoprotein that promotes breast cancer adhesion to vascular endothelial cells.  Once again, fucoidan was shown to be able to block the binding of thrombospondin to these cells by more than 60 percent. (Incardona F. et al.  “Heparin-binding domain, type 1 and type 2 repeats of thrombospondin mediate its interaction with human breast cancer cells,” J Cell Biochem, 1996 Sep: 62(4):431-42.)
 Sulfated polysaccharides derived from dietary seaweeds increase the esterase activity of a lymphocyte tryptase, granzyme A.

Hirayasu H, Yoshikawa Y, Tsuzuki S, Fushiki T.

Laboratory of Nutrition Chemistry, Division of Food Science and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.

Intake of sulfated polysaccharides, such as fucoidan or lambda-carrageenan extracted from seaweeds, has been shown to enhance immune responses, resulting in inhibition of tumor growth. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which these sulfated compounds mediate the enhancement. In the present study, we examined the effect of sulfated polysaccharides from seaweeds on esterase activity of a lymphocyte tryptase, granzyme A (GzmA), which is believed to induce the production of cytokines in a variety of cells. Inclusion of fucoidan (from Fucus vesiculosus) or lambda-carrageenan (from Gigartina aciculaire and Gigartina) in the reaction mixture increased the hydrolysis of Nalpha-benzyloxy-L-lysine thiobenzyl ester (BLT) by a recombinant rat GzmA in a concentration-dependent manner.

Heparin, a sulfated polysaccharide from animal tissues, also increase the BLT hydrolysis, but the effect was less remarkable than those of the polysaccharides from the seaweeds. Hanes-Woolf analysis revealed that the enhancements in the presence of these sulfated compounds from the seaweeds were attributed to the increases in the affinity of the enzyme toward the substrate but not to those in the turnover rate. Chondroitin sulfate A, a sulfated polysaccharide found in animal and plant tissues, showed no positive effect on the hydrolysis. In the present paper, we propose that the enhancement of immune responses by intake of the sulfated polysaccharides from seaweeds can be partially accounted for by their direct effects on GzmA.

PMID: 16521710 [PubMed - in process]

FUCOIDAN - Anti-Tumor Related Studies
  Researchers at Gifu University in Japan extracted 31 fractions of neutral and acidic polysaccharides from brown sea plant.  They then tested these fractions for anti-tumor activity in mice with Ehrlich carcinoma.  Two of the fractions had such activity.  On the basis of chemical and spectral analyses these compounds were found to be fucoidan.  (Zhang C. et al. “Antitumor active fucoidan from the brown seaweed, umitoranoo (Sargassum thunbergii), Biosci Biotechnol Biochem, 1995 Apr:59(4):563-7.)

A similar study done at the Kitasato Universtiy in Japan showed the same results with sarcoma-180 implanted in rats.  (Yamamoto, Ichiro et al.  “Antitumor Effect of Seaweed,” Japan, J. Esp. Med 1997, Vol. 47, 3, Pl 133-40.)
 
  In the Laboratoire de Pharmacologie Marine, in Nantes, France, researchers studied the anti-tumor and anti-proliferative properties of fucoidan extracts from brown sea plant.  They discovered that fucoidan exerts a reversible antiproliferative activity in the GI p[hase of the cell cycle.  Their study also showed anti-tumor activity in mice bearing non-small-cell bronchopulmonary carcinoma cancer.  Their study indicates that fucoidan exhibits inhibitory effects both in vitro and in vivo as a potent anti-tumor agent. (Riou D. et al.  “Antitumor and antiproliferative effects of fucan extracted from ascophyllum nodosum against a non-small-cell bronchopulmonary carcinoma line,” Anticancer Research, 1996 May-Jun: 16(3A):1213-8.)
 
  The department of Hematology at Philipps University in Marburg, Germany, discovered that the addition of fucoidan to adrenal cancer cells, inhibited angiogenesis binding, thereby stopping the vasculation of tumor growths.  (Zugmaier G. et al.  “Polysulfated heparinoids selectively inactive heparin-binding angiogenesis factors,” Ann N Y Academy of Science, 1999:886:243-8.)

 In a study done at Mie University in Japan, researchers discovered that fucoidan acted as an activator for the reticuloendothelial system (the phagocytic system of the body, including the fixed macrophages of tissues, liver and spleen).  Fucoidan enhanced the phagocytosis of macrophages.  This study suggests that the antitumor activity of  fucoidan is related to the enhancement of the body’s immune system.  (Itoh H. et al.  “Antitumor activity and immunological properties of marine algal polysaccharides, especially fucoidan, prepared from Sargassum thunbergii of Phaeophyceae,” Anticancer Research 1993 Nov-Dec:13(6A):2045-52.)
 
  At the Harvard medical School, researchers introduced mammary tumors into female rats.  The study showed that rats treated with fucoidan took a longer time to tumor than did the control rats. (Teas, Jan et al. “Dietary Seaweed (Laminaria) and Mammary Carcinogenesis in Rats.) Cancer Research Vol. 44, July, 1984, 2758-2761.)