Antioxidants found to defend cancer in the body

摘要

They may be marketed as a way to protect yourself against disease, but there is increasing evidence that antioxidants are more foe than friend. We now have an idea why: while they may protect healthy cells from DNA damage, they also protect cancer cells from our bodily defences. Antioxidants are chemicals, such as beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, which mop up the destructive free radicals produced when our cells metabolise nutrients. It now seems that by mopping up the free radicals, antioxidants deactivate a gene called ps3, whose job is to destroy cells with defective DNA, including cancer cells. This means the cancer cells can keep growing, says Martin Bergo at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.