Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, has been shown to reduce the size of tumors and enhance the positive effects of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, while limiting its harmful side effects, according to the open-access journal Cell Division.
A El-Mowafy led a team of researchers from Mansoura University, Egypt, who studied DHA's effects on solid tumors growing in mice, as well as investigating how this fatty acid interacts with cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug that is known to cause kidney damage. He said: "DHA elicited prominent chemopreventive effects on its own, and appreciably augmented those of cisplatin as well. Furthermore, this study is the first to reveal that DHA can obliterate lethal cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and renal tissue injury."
The researchers found that, at the molecular level, DHA acts by reducing leukocytosis, systemic inflammation and oxidative stress - all processes that have been linked with tumor growth.
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