Food preservative found to kill cancer cells

A naturally occurring food preservative, nisin, has been found effective at destroying cancer and antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Rats fed a “nisin milkshake” had up to 80% of head and neck tumours destroyed after nine weeks and also displayed extended survival. The tumours displayed were comparable to those seen at week three.

Dr Yvonne Kapila, from the University of Michigan, said: “To date, nobody had found bacteria from humans or living animals that is resistant to nisin. Mother Nature has done a lot of the research for us, it's been tested for thousands of years."

Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of nisin, but for this research highly purified nisin ZP was used almost double how effective it was. Many foods contain nisin but not at the necessary levels to kill tumour cells, instead it’s added to food at the rate of .25 to 37.5mg/kg.

Nisin has proved itself effective at nullifying mouth diseases, antibiotic-resistant MRSA and skin, respiratory and abdomen infections.

The preservative can be found in products such as nisin creams and to treat infections and mastitis as well as a sanitiser in lactating cows.

The drug is effective against bacteria as it binds to a static area of the bacteria, meaning nisin can begin destroying the bacteria before it has a chance to mutate to become antibiotic-resistant and also it kills biofilms.

Dr Kapila said: “The application of nisin has advanced beyond its role as a food biopreservative. Current findings and other published data support nisin's potential use to treat antibiotic resistant infections, periodontal disease and cancer."

The research have been published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.