Thursday, November 14, 2024

An extract of UNAM’s super chayote proves successful in fighting cancer

Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments are accustomed to cocktails of chemicals designed to combat malignant tumor cells, but now a Mexican scientist has developed a chayote-based alternative.

It took cellular biologist Edelmiro Santiago Osorio and his team at the Zaragoza Higher Studies School (FES) of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) a decade of research and trials to prove the effectiveness of their hybrid chayote as tumor-fighting agent.

Chayotes, also known as pear squash or mirliton, are eaten around the world, but Santiago explained that the varieties found in stores and markets would be of no use in the fight against cancer.

“We would have to eat many kilograms of market chayotes to obtain the effect we get from the hybrid,” he said.

Santiago’s chayote is the result of combining two wild varieties found in Mexico, and it becomes antitumoral after it is processed to obtain a raw extract.

He claimed that his chayote extract is 1,000 times more potent than what could be obtained from common chayote varieties, and is as effective as cytarabine, a chemotherapy medication used to treat several types of cancer.

Santiago and his team used mice to test the chayote extract and found that it greatly inhibited the proliferation of some cancer-producing cell lines.

After creating his hybrid chayote strain, Santiago is now looking to create and fund a business that can grow it commercially to bring his “super chayote” to market.

Santiago remarked that the goal of the fight against cancer is not to have a single cure-all molecule or substance, but to gather an arsenal: “We must find the way to attack the tumoral cell at different stages of its development with different molecules.”

Mexico News Daily

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Ontario, Canada Prime Minister Doug Ford standing at a podium with the logo of the Labourers International Union of North America giving a speech. Behind him are two men watching on

Ontario premier suggests Canada end free trade with Mexico

14
Accusing Mexico of helping China skirt heavy Canadian and U.S. tariffs, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling for an end to the USMCA.
A person shops at a local market in Mexico City.

Sheinbaum, business sector agree to lower basic food prices

2
“We want prices to come down for consumers, especially for those who don't have much,” Sheinbaum said Wednesday.
Germán Reyes Reyes, a former army captain who became interim head of the Chilpancingo Public Security Ministry on Sept. 30, was detained by state and federal security forces for the murder of Alejandro Arcos Catalán

Chilpancingo security chief arrested for mayor’s murder

2
The deceased mayor's decapitated body was found inside his pickup truck in the state capital of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, on Oct. 6.