Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common elderly leukemia and still is lacking a cure. A variety of immuno-chemotherapy treatments is available, but relapse and development of refractoriness to treatment are common. Studies from the Spanish National Research Council with the collaboration of the Hospitals Gregorio Marañon and de la Princesa, both in Madrid, Spain, have shown the pharmacological usefulness of indole-3-carbinol for the treatment of this disease.
Indole-3-carbinol is a natural compound found in edible plants of the Brassica genus, such as the broccoli, the cabbage, the Brussels sprouts and the mustard greens. It is well tolerated by the organism but it is toxic for a variety of human leukemic cells. These results have been published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
The authors have performed in vitro studies using leukemia cells from CLL patients with different prognosis and disease stages. These studies have shown that concentrations of this compound that could be reached in the patients by its pharmacological administration cause the death of the leukemic cells in vitro without affecting the normal lymphocytes that are essential for the immune system. These studies also show that indole-3-carbinol improves the effect of fludarabine, one of the most common drugs used for the treatment of CLL, and even restores the sensitivity to fludarabine of leukemic cells from patients that have developed resistance to this drug.
"Our results show that indole-3-carbinol highly improves the therapeutic effect of fludarabine and other drugs used in the treatment of CLL. Therefore, these combined treatments could benefit CLL patients with relapsed or refractory disease that are running out of treatment options" explains Juan M Zapata, principal investigator at Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas "Alberto Sols" and senior researcher of this work.
Perez-Chacon, G , Martinez-Laperche, C, Rebolleda, N, Somovilla-Crespo, B, Munoz-Calleja, C, Buno, I, Zapata, JM . (2015). Indole-3-carbinol synergizes with and restores fludarabine sensitivity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells irrespective of p53 activity and treatment resistances. Clin. Cancer Res. (PMID: 26324744) DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432
Zapata JM and Perez-Chacon G. WO2015044491A1