Numerous epidemiological surveys have shown that consuming coffee can prevent cancer development. Caffeine and chlorogenic acid are the most well known constituents which are included in coffee and prove to have an positive effect to prevent cancer. Although these constituents are known to directly act on anti cancer machineries, such as anti-oxidant effect. There are also studies showing that benefit of functional food is exhibited by metabolic changes. Therefore, we may anticipate that changing metabolic pathways may occur during coffee intake and further expect lowering the cancer risk.
Thus, in this study, we analyzed the effect of administration of coffee to Eker rat which are a renal cancer and a metabolic syndrome model rat. By giving 1% coffee for 100 days, we found that renal cancer development was suppressed. We further analyzed the metabolic change by metabolomic analysis in liver and observed that the abnormal carbohydrate and ketone body production in Eker rats were restored by coffee consumption.
We also confirmed that these effects were not due to the recovery of tumor suppression gene TSC2 expression. Thus, coffee may have a anti-cancer effect by changing the metabolic pathway and lower the risk factors which may lead to cancer development.
