The Long and Winding Road of Diet and Breast Cancer Prevention

Neuhouser, Marian L.

doi:10.1158/1055-9965.epi-06-0728

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 16 publications

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“…This hypothesis is based on indirect evidence. Studies have suggested a beneficial effect of plant food intake on human health [113], [114], the prevention of cancer [115] and cardiovascular diseases [115], [116], and the data are consistent with the proverb “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” In addition to a substantial amount of phytochemicals, salts, minerals, and vitamins, fruits and vegetables contain a significant amounts of pectin, which might be a substrate for gastrointestinal microbial inhabitants and methanol production. Pectin has been shown to have a role in the prevention of heart disease and to exert a protective effect in hypertension and diabetes [117]–[120].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Methanol May Function as a Cross-Kingdom Signal

et al. 2012

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Recently, we demonstrated that leaf wounding results in the synthesis of pectin methylesterase (PME), which causes the plant to release methanol into the air. Methanol emitted by a wounded plant increases the accumulation of methanol-inducible gene mRNA and enhances antibacterial resistance as well as cell-to-cell communication, which facilitates virus spreading in neighboring plants. We concluded that methanol is a signaling molecule involved in within-plant and plant-to-plant communication. Methanol is considered to be a poison in humans because of the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)-mediated conversion of methanol into toxic formaldehyde. However, recent data showed that methanol is a natural compound in normal, healthy humans. These data call into question whether human methanol is a metabolic waste product or whether methanol has specific function in humans.Here, to reveal human methanol-responsive genes (MRGs), we used suppression subtractive hybridization cDNA libraries of HeLa cells lacking ADH and exposed to methanol. This design allowed us to exclude genes involved in formaldehyde and formic acid detoxification from our analysis. We identified MRGs and revealed a correlation between increases in methanol content in the plasma and changes in human leukocyte MRG mRNA levels after fresh salad consumption by volunteers. Subsequently, we showed that the methanol generated by the pectin/PME complex in the gastrointestinal tract of mice induces the up- and downregulation of brain MRG mRNA. We used an adapted Y-maze to measure the locomotor behavior of the mice while breathing wounded plant vapors in two-choice assays. We showed that mice prefer the odor of methanol to other plant volatiles and that methanol changed MRG mRNA accumulation in the mouse brain.We hypothesize that the methanol emitted by wounded plants may have a role in plant-animal signaling. The known positive effect of plant food intake on human health suggests a role for physiological methanol in human gene regulation.

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