Can tumour cell drug resistance be reversed by essential fatty acids and their metabolites?

Consumption of an omega-3 fatty acids product, INCELL AAFA™, reduced side-effects of CPT-11 (irinotecan) in mice

“…The results of in vitro studies have shown that a small amount of either eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the major long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in fish oil, added to cell culture media can cause tumour cell death but not kill cultured normal cells (de Vries and Van Noorden, 1992). Other reported benefits of omega-3 PUFA dietary supplements given prior to or during cancer therapy include: reversing tumour cell drug resistance (Das et al, 1998), reducing the gastrointestinal, haematological or cardiac side effects of various chemotherapeutic treatments (Hardman et al, 1999a;Germain et al, 1999;Shao et al, 1997), decreasing cancer cachexia (Karmali, 1996;Tisdale, 1993;Barber et al, 1999), and protection from alopecia (Takahata et al, 1999). Thus supplementing the diet with omega-3 fatty acids may be beneficial during cancer chemotherapy.…”

Carboplatin resistant human laryngeal carcinoma cells are cross resistant to curcumin due to reduced curcumin accumulation

“…This can be achieved through altered properties in cell membrane lipids as it was recently shown with isolated lipids from doxorubicin sensitive (MCF-7) and resistant (MCF-7/ADR) breast cancer cells (Peetla et al, 2010). Also, fatty acid analysis of vincristine sensitive KB-3-1 and vincristine resistant KB-ChR-8-5 cells showed that the resistant cell line had lower amounts of unsaturated fatty acids (Das et al, 1998). In line with that, when membrane phospholipids 17 of L1210 murine leukemia cells were enriched with fatty acids of variable saturation degrees the accumulation of adriamycin directly correlated with the degree of fatty acid membrane saturation (Burns and North, 1986).…”

The interaction of platinum and ruthenium complexes with pancreatic phospholipase A2 and phospholipids

“…150 Dakle, interakcija sa fosfolipidima samo posredno utiče na citotoksičnost kompleksa, uzimajući u obzir signalnu ulogu lipida, mehanizme transporta kompleksa kroz lipidni dvosloj i korelaciju promene u fluidnosti i permeabilnosti ćelijske membrane i efikasnosti hemoterapeutika. [151][152][153]142 Naime, razvoj rezistencije ćelija kancera je povezan sa smanjenom fluidnošću lipidnog dvosloja, smanjenom koncentracijom masnih kiselina C 18:1 i C 18:3 , smanjenim nivoem nezasićenih masnih kiselina i smanjenom akumulacijom kompleksa u ćeliji. 154,155 Ova činjenica je dalje podstakla naučnike za razvoj novih kompleksa koji modifikuju fluidnost membrane ili se lakše transportuju kroz membranu, zahvaljujući hidrofobnim ligandima (sintetički ligandi, masne kiseline).…”