Compound in Magnolia may Combat Head, Neck Cancers
WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) — A compound from the magnolia flower that has been used for hundreds of years in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine to treat anxiety can also be used to shrink tumors in head and neck cancers, according to a recent study.
Head and neck cancers, generally caused by tobacco and alcohol use, have a 50 percent survival rate and kill more than 20,000 people per year in the United States.
The compound, called honokiol, blocks a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, which is present in almost all head and neck cancer cells.
Researchers tested honokiol on cell lines derived from human cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, tongue, and pharynx, as well as on tumors implanted in mice, and found that it shut down cancer cells successfully. Based on the study, the flower extract also binds more strongly with EGFR than the commonly used drug gefitinib.
“Conclusively, honokiol appears to be an attractive bioactive small molecule phytochemical for the management of head and neck cancer which can be used either alone or in combination with other available therapeutic drugs,” said Dr. Santosh K. Katiyar, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in a press release.
The study is published in Oncotarget.
