The Mediterranean diet includes copious quantities of olive oil, in addition to nuts, beans, fresh fish and vegetables. The diet has been subject to repeated studies as to its health benefits, where researchers try to square the correlation of those who eat such a diet and a general tendency to better health.
One area that has been subject to review recently is the diet in relation to brain cancer. This has taken the form of a review of 135 different studies on fatty acids in the diet. Of these, University of Edinburgh researchers selected 18 studies that offered a more robust methodology and drew a positive connection between fatty acids intake and improved memory and cognition.
The researchers summarize that the component of olive oil of greatest interest is oleic acid. This compound appears to stimulate miR-7 within cells. Multiple roles and targets of microRNA (miRNA) precursor mir-7, as well as its expression pattern, have been linked to regulatory mechanisms and pathogenesis in glioblastoma (the most aggressive cancer that begins within the brain), breast cancer and other types of cancers. A microRNA is a small non-coding RNA molecule.
The authors conclude that miR-7, based on the molecular and cancer research studies, helps with tumor suppression. Moreover, the introduction of mature miR-7 has shown good results in shutting down tumor growth. This process can begin with oleic acid in olive oil.
In theory there are sufficient quantities of the nutrient to lead to the production of cell molecules with miR-7. The oleic acids help in producing the molecules of miR-7 and they challenge a cell protein called MSI2. The MSI2 protein is problematic in brain cancers since it closes-down down the production of miR-7.
At present the findings are theoretical although they have been supported by studies on human cell extracts and living cells. The researcher shop this will provide the basis for therapies that to lower the chance of brain cancers from forming or as a treatment to help stop the growth of existing cancer.
Importantly, the research cannot, and makes no claim to, recommend an increased consumption of olive oil. No scientific guidance exists on the appropriate quantities of olive oil (if any) in a diet.
The research is published in the Journal of Molecular Biology under the heading “Oleic Acid Induces MiR-7 Processing through Remodeling of Pri-MiR-7/Protein Complex.”
