Spicy Protector

The active ingredient in chili peppers, capsaicin is shown by previous studies to exert anti-inflammatory effects.  Eyal Raz, from the University of California/San Diego (UCSD; California, USA), and colleagues fed capsaicin to lab animals modeling multiple intestinal neoplasia.  The team observed that capsaicin activated an ion channel, TRPV1, which is expressed by epithelial cells of the intestines, where it is activated by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) – initiating a direct negative feedback which dampens EGFR to reduce the risk of unwanted growth and intestinal tumor development.  The study authors submit that: “Our findings implicate TRPV1 as a regulator of growth factor signaling in the intestinal epithelium through activation of PTP1B and subsequent suppression of intestinal tumorigenesis.”