Breast milk compound found to nip warts
Finding may aid cervical cancer treatment
Thursday, June 24, 2004 Posted: 9:26 AM EDT (1326 GMT)Thursday, June 24, 2004 Posted: 9:26 AM EDT (1326 GMT)
(AP)
-- A compound in breast milk has been found to destroy many skin warts,
raising hopes it might also prove effective against cervical cancer and
other lethal diseases caused by the same virus.
Skin warts
are caused by the human papilloma virus, which is extremely widespread.
Swedish researchers found that when the breast-milk compound -- since
named HAMLET -- is applied to the skin, it kills virally infected cells
in warts resistant to conventional treatments.
"This may have
relevance for the treatment of cervical cancer," because virally
infected and cancer cells are similar, said lead researcher Dr.
Catharina Svanborg, professor of clinical immunology at Lund University
in Lund, Sweden.
The researchers hope to start small-scale testing of the compound soon on women with cervical cancer.
"Any
long-term potential for any devastating diseases is very speculative at
this stage" but should be followed up, said Catherine Laughlin, chief
of the virology branch in the Division of Microbiology and Infectious
Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
There
are 130 known types of the human papilloma virus. Nearly all cases of
cervical cancer are caused by two sexually transmitted types. Other
types cause skin and genital warts, squamous cell skin cancer and
lesions in the throat that are deadly in rare cases.
Many people carry the virus in skin cells, but it does not always cause disease.
Compound reduced warts
Doctors
knew breast milk contained a natural antibiotic. But its potential
against viruses and tumors was discovered by accident.
Svanborg's
team was testing ways to fight what is called bacterial superinfection
-- bacteria infecting cells already infected by a virus. They applied a
protein in mother's milk called alpha-lactalbumin to double-infected
lung cancer cells.
To the researchers' surprise, the cancer cells
as well as the bacteria inside them were killed. That was because the
milk protein had changed its configuration, bound to another milk
component called oleic acid, and created the more powerful HAMLET
compound.
The research team then tested the compound against
warts on patients' hands and painful ones on their feet, called plantar
warts. The warts shrank by at least 75 percent over the first three
weeks the compound was applied to the skin. And at least three-quarters
of the warts disappeared after a second treatment.
 | | FACT BOX | Warts
shrank by at least 75 percent during the first three weeks the compound
was applied to the skin. And at least three-quarters of the warts
disappeared after a second treatment.
|
|
The
researchers dubbed the compound HAMLET, an acronym for human
alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells, partly because of their
proximity to the scene of the Shakespeare play, which took place in
Denmark.
The research was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
"Any
agent that can be topically applied and absorbs well into cancerous or
precancerous cells has great potential," said Dr. Frank Murphy, chief
of dermatology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick,
New Jersey.
Murphy noted that the compound probably would be much
more expensive than standard treatments for warts, about half of which
go away on their own within two years. The standard treatments for
getting rid of warts include burning, freezing, laser removal and
various topical solutions.
Dr. Karl Beutner, associate clinical
professor of dermatology at University of California-San Francisco,
said a drug that destroys skin warts also should work against papilloma
lesions in the throat, but not necessarily against cervical cancer.
Svanborg
said if HAMLET proves useful against serious diseases, the compound
would probably be synthesized in the lab instead of being extracted
from breast milk.
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