Student tests how saffron can treat liver cancer
abu dhabi — Saffron has been proven to be a promising component for a new, safer treatment of liver cancer, according to a molecular biology student who conducted tests on rats.
Ameera Al Mansoori, a 25-yearold Emirati who had just finished her master’s in molecular biology and biotechnology at the United Arab Emirates University, continued the work of Dr Amr Amin — a professor at the university who has been studying the anti-liver cancer properties of the “golden spice”.
Dr Amin and his team’s research had been featured in a previous Khaleej Times report.
In a research project titled ‘In vivo assessment of safranal’s novel therapeutic effects on chemically induced hepatic neoplasia’, Al Mansoori detailed the process through which she had proven that saffron can treat liver cancer.
She first induced cancer in rats, then she regularly gave them a dose of safranal substance, which is a bioactive molecule of saffron. Thereafter, tests conducted on the rats’ liver and blood revealed highly effective results in treating cancer. “This is something new, and working with animals is a huge step,” the molecular biologist said.
“When you work with animals, it is more reliable than cells,” Al Mansoori said. “It is the whole organism and not just the cells.”
Her project kicked off two years ago with not much difficulty. “Everyone was there to help us and I was trained on how to deal with the animals,” Al Mansoori said.
“I used a chemical — DEN — which causes cancer, especially liver cancer. I gave them an injection once a week for 15 weeks, until we found cancer in the liver.”
Following the chemical injections, the drug was given to the animals for three straight weeks. She discovered a number of promising results from the blood, where she found out there were enzymes that acted as markers for liver damage. “First, safranal reduced these markers,” Al Mansoori said. “Secondly, we did tests on the liver itself and tested some proteins. Safranal suppressed the cell cycle and induced cell death (apoptosis).”
For the cancer to survive, it keeps away any signals that kill the cells; takes the cell cycle in its favour to grow; and divides and escapes any signals dictating that the cancer should die, she said.
“The drug worked perfectly on these two pathways,” she said. “We still need to do more tests because I have just tested two pathways of many. Usually, cancer has 11 hallmarks. We hopefully want this to be used on humans someday because the drug comes from a natural source, saffron, which has no side effects as compared to chemotherapy.”
“I think it could be used on humans soon. In 2016, liver cancer was the fourth cause of death related to cancer in the UAE.”
Al Mansoori is pursuing opportunities to publish her experiments before leaving the university at the end of the semester, with the hopes of continuing her work in cancer research at the Khalifa Hospital. —