Generations of American children have been told, “Eat your broccoli!” And for decades, researchers have known that broccoli and related vegetables like cauliflower and watercress ____1____ lower the risk of some cancers. And that compounds in the vegetables could kill cancer cells. But how the cruciferous veggies worked their ____2____ was a mystery. Until now. Because researchers have figured out just what broccoli does that helps keep cancer in check. The work appears in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Proteins ____3____ the gene p53 help keep cancer from starting to grow. But when the p53 gene is mutated, the protection is gone. Mutated p53 is ____4____ about half of all human cancers.

Broccoli and its relatives are rich in compounds called isothiocyanates, or ITCs. And these ITCs apparently destroy the products of the mutant p53 gene, but leave the healthy p53 proteins alone and free to ____5____.

The researchers write that “depletion of mutant p53 may reduce drug resistance and lead to new strategies for treating cancer in the clinic.” In the meantime, eat your broccoli!
【視聽版科學小組榮譽出品】
appeared to medical magic coded by implicated in suppress tumor development
美國現今這代小孩經常聽到這么一句話：“快吃你的花椰菜吧！”而十年來，研究人員發(fā)現花椰菜和同種蔬菜——比如說菜花和水田芹——似乎能減低某些癌癥的發(fā)病率。蔬菜里的化合物可以殺死癌細胞。以前我們仍不知道十字花科蔬菜是怎樣實現這個醫(yī)學奇跡的——但現在我們可知道了。因為研究人員已經理解了花椰菜控制癌細胞的方法。這項研究發(fā)表在《藥物化學雜志》上。 p53基因編碼的蛋白質可以抑制癌細胞生長。但若p53基因突變，這種蛋白質就不能合成。p53基因突變和過半數人類癌癥有關。 花椰菜以及同種蔬菜富含化合物異硫氰酸鹽，又稱ITCs。這些ITCs似乎會破壞變異p53基因的合成物，但不干擾正常p53蛋白質，讓正常p53蛋白質自由抑制腫瘤生長。 研究人員寫道：“減少變異的p53基因可能會降低抗藥性，產生新的臨床癌癥治療方式?！痹卺t(yī)學發(fā)展的同時，趕緊吃你的花椰菜吧！^o^