Citrus scent inhibits liver cancer

Monday, January 19, 2015 - 11:30 in Biology & Nature

As main component of essential oils, terpenes can inhibit the growth of different cancer cells. Researchers have analyzed this process in liver cancer cells in detail. Their shed light upon the molecular mechanisms that resulted in cancer cells stop growing, following the application of (-)-citronellal, and they proved that the olfactory receptor OR1A2 is the crucial molecule for that purpose. In future, the olfactory receptor could serve as target for liver cancer diagnosis and therapy.

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