Honey induces apoptosis in renal cell carcinoma

I think the title here should be "Another reason to Eat Honey" . Science is finding what many always believed anyway, HONEY IS GOOD FOR YOU! But for those that need proof......

 Apoptosis: A form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area. Apoptosis plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining the health of the body by eliminating old cells, unnecessary cells, and unhealthy cells.

From 
The National Center for Biotechnology Information:

INTRODUCTION

Renal cancer accounts for nearly 2% of all malignancies globally. The American Cancer Society estimated approximately 36,160 new cases of kidney cancer in 2005. More than 80% of kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas (RCC), the remainder being mainly renal pelvis cancers. Mortality to incidence ratio of RCC is higher compared with other urologic malignancies. RCC is erratic and unpredictable even when diagnosed and treated early by nephrectomy, as the neoplasm can appear to remain stable for years and then metastasize to distant locations[1] Renal cell carcinoma is characterized by a lack of specific clinical signs that allow the diagnosis at an early stage.[2] Therefore, a high proportion of patients will have metastasis at the time of first diagnosis and cannot be cured, because there is no effective therapy for metastatic renal cancer. Traditional therapeutic approaches to RCC, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or hormone- therapy, have little or no effect on this disease,[2] although immune-modulating agents, cytokines, or differentiating agents, such as retinoids, have shown antitumor activity in a small proportion of patients with metastatic renal cancer.[3–5] These methods do not address metastases and can promote tumor progression by impairing the immune system. Treatment methods focused on the regulation of tumor proliferation are necessary to control RCC effectively.

The treatment of RCC has made little progress in the past 30 years and no chemotherapeutic agents currently available are effective against it.[6,7] There is a need for novel and more selective drugs that are able to interfere with targets directly involved in the process of renal cancer development and progression. On the other hand, the biological heterogeneity of RCC, its resistance to anti-cancer drugs, and the side effects of chemotherapeutics are the major obstacles in the effective treatment of RCC. Radical nephrectomy of localized RCC is effective only in a few cases because the rate of systemic metastasis is high with nearly 50% of the patients developing metastasis after surgical resection.[8,9] Patients with metastatic RCC have a median survival rate of 10 months and <2% of patients survive beyond 5 years.[8] Therefore, the search for effective therapeutic agents for this malignancy is urgently needed.

Antioxidant-rich foods have several preventive effects against different diseases, such as cancer, coronary disease, inflammatory disorders, and neurologic degeneration.[10,11] Honey has been used as a traditional food source since ancient times. Honey is the substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants are gathered, modified, and stored in the honeycomb by honeybees. The major components of honey are fructose and glucose and also it consists of carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, water, minerals, and enzymes. In general, honey is also rich in antioxidants[12,13] and has antibacterial properties.[14,15] There are many reports in the medical literature of honey being effective as a dressing for wounds,[16–21] burns,[22–25] and ulcer.[26,27,28,29] Honey not only promotes growth of new skin tissue by creating a moist environment, but also prevents infection by way of its antimicrobial properties. Moreover, honey is harmless and in fact enables faster healing of the wounds by forming new tissues.

Honey is thought to exhibit a broad spectrum of therapeutic properties, including antibacterial, antifungal, cytostatic, and anti-inflammatory activity.[30] Honey has been used for the treatment of Fournier’s gangrene, abdominal wound disruption, gastric ulcers,[31] gastroenteritis, and burns and for the storage of skin grafts.[32] Recent studies by Gribel and Pashiniski indicated that honey possessed moderate antitumor and pronounced antimetastatic effects in 5 different strains of rat and mouse tumors.[33] Furthermore, honey potentiated the antitumor activity of chemotherapeutic drugs, such as 5-fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide.[34] Honey contains many biologically active compounds, including caffeic acid, caffeic acid phenethyl ester, and flavonoid glycones. These compounds have been proved to have an inhibitory effect on tumor cell proliferation and transformation by the downregulation of many cellular enzymatic pathways, including protein tyrosine kinase, cyclooxygenase, and ornithine decarboxylase pathways.[35]

Recently, Tarek et al. showed that honey could induce apoptosis inT24, RT4, 253J, and MBT-2 bladder cancer cell lines. They showed significant inhibition of the proliferation of T24 and MBT-2 cell lines by 1%—25% honey and of RT4 and 253J cell lines by 6%—25% honey. Further in the in vivo studies, intralesional injection of 6% and 12% honey, as well as oral ingestion of honey significantly inhibited tumor growth.[36] Developments of new drugs with better efficacy are gaining momentum. The search for food as medicine is constantly evolving and people exploit various antioxidant-rich foods for this purpose. Therefore, the present study provides an updated overview of experimental in vitro investigation on the biological activities of honey, especially focusing on its cytotoxicity toward the ACHN renal cancer cell line.

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Assessment of apoptosis by Annexin-V/PI on renal cell carcinoma (ACHN). Percentage of cell death based on the assessment of apoptosis by Annexin-V/PI. ***and ###P < 0.001 compared with the control and the other dose, respectively