Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels grow toward tumors to promote new growth. When tumors grow beyond about 1-2 mm, they require additional oxygen and nutrients. They send chemical signals to the body to promote new blood vessels to supply the tumor, allowing them  to grow and eventually to metastasize, spreading cancer throughout the body. Efforts to reduce or eliminate angiogenesis have become one of the most promising and exciting areas in cancer therapy. If angiogenesis can be stopped, tumors will whither and die.

New research has shown that extracts of Ginkgo biloba are powerful antagonists to angiogenesis. A research paper published in Fundamentals of Clinical Pharmacology found that exposure of human breast cancer cells to Ginkgo extract inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells. Likewise with exposure of human bladder cancer cells exposed to the same Ginkgo extract.

A Boston-based team led by Dr. Bin Ye and Dr. Daniel Cramer at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that women who took Ginkgo supplements for six months or longer had a 60% lower risk  for ovarian cancer.

Research is ongoing and more is needed to precisely define how effective Ginkgo biloba will be in the search for cancer therapies. In the meantime, those people with tinnitus using Arches Tinnitus Relief Formula, including pharmaceutical-grade Ginkgo biloba extract, will benefit from the anti-angiogenesis properties of Ginkgo biloba.

Ginkgo biloba has many other healthful properties such as acting as an antioxidant, blood vessel health, reducing atherosclerosis, brain health and anti-depressant activity.

Look for a more detailed discussion of the anti-cancer properties of Ginkgo biloba in a future article in our newsletter, Quiet Times.

Barry Keate

Hearing loss caused by damage to the delicate hair cells of the inner ear (usually by loud noise) has been believed to be incurable. But now a team of scientists at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) are using gene therapy to grow functioning inner ear cells in mice embryos in the womb.

Gene therapy involves inserting a functional form of a gene called Atoh1 into the inner ear of unborn mice. The procedure showed that these animals ended up with more hair cells than normal. More importantly, the cells that had Atoh1 functioned in the same way as normal hair cells.

The work by OHSU and their exciting results has roots in similar scientific breakthroughs by other researchers at the University of Michigan who used gene therapy to generate hair cells in adult guinea pigs.

In other arenas, progress is being made in developing stem cell treatments for hearing loss. By injecting bone marrow stem cells into the inner ear of rats with damaged hearing, researchers found that they recovered more rapidly. You can read an article on stem cell research in mice in our Tinnitus Library.

Despite the encouraging news a functional procedure for humans is a long way off. There remain a range of obstacles to surmount before people with hearing problems see benefits from gene therapy treatment, such as how to deliver the hair cell genes into human ears. But as one researcher said, “it is no longer a pipe dream.”