Anticancer effects of lunasin on cancer stem cells

What is it about?

Lunasin is bioactive peptide found in soybean that has anticancer activity against a variety of cancer types. We have previously found that lunasin is active against melanoma in both cell culture and mouse models. Moreover, we clearly showed that lunasin can target putative melanoma cancer stem cells. In these studies, we extended these initial studies and demonstrate that lunasin inhibits the metastatic potential of melanoma cancer stem cells, and that this inhibition is associated with changes in integrin signaling and histone acetylation.

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Why is it important?

These results suggest that lunasin may be useful as an adjuvant treatment for melanoma, and potentially other cancer types, that can be used to reduce the number and metastatic capability of cancer stem cells. These cancer stem cells are often resistant to standard chemotherapy and are the primary cause of recurrent disease in treated patients.

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