Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0546837 (esophageal cancer)
 8,907 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Tannins are increasingly recognized as dietary carcinogens and as antinutrients interfering with the system's full use of protein. Nevertheless, certain tannin-rich beverages, masticatories, and folk remedies, long utilized in African, Asiatic, Pacific, and Latin American countries, are now appearing in North American sundry shops and grocery stores. These include guarana (Paullinia cupana HBK.) from Brazil, kola nut (Cola nitida Schott & Endl. and C. acuminata Schott & Endl.) from West Africa, and betel nut (Areca catechu L.) from Malaya. The betel nut, or arecanut, has long been associated with oral and esophageal cancer because of its tannin content and the tannin contributed by the highly astringent cutch from Acacia catechu L. and Uncaria gambir Roxb. and the aromatic, astringent 'pan' (leaves of Piper betel L.) chewed with it. In addition to the constant recreational/social ingestion of these plant materials, they are much consumed as aphrodisiacs and medications. Guarana and kola nut enjoy great popularity in their native lands because they are also rich in caffeine, which serves as a stimulant. Research and popular education on the deleterious effects of excessive tannin intake could do much to reduce the heavy burden of early mortality and health care, especially in developing countries.
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PMID:Widespread tannin intake via stimulants and masticatories, especially guarana, kola nut, betel vine, and accessories. 141 98

Mate, an infusion containing caffeine (3 g/liter), is drunk hot by most Uruguayan, North Argentinian, and South Brazilian people. This beverage has been recently associated with esophageal cancer in Brazil and Uruguay. To test the mutagenic and lethal effects of mate infusion, caffeine, hyperthermia, and their combinations, we used Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an eucaryotic model system measuring lys to LYS reversions. We showed that mate infusion was not mutagenic, whereas caffeine at the same concentration contained in mate, produced a 5-fold increase in the spontaneous mutation rate. The highest observed mutagenic rate corresponded to hyperthermia (54 degrees C at 60 min). Hot caffeine also produced a time-dependent mutagenic effect, whereas hot mate infusion determined a significantly lower mutagenic effect than hot caffeine. The differential lethality produced by the tested agents plays an important role in the expression of the induced mutagenic damage. Caffeine and mate infusion could decrease the mutagenic effect of hyperthermia through the channeling of part of the induced DNA lesions into an error-free repair pathway.
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PMID:Mutagenicity induced by hyperthermia, hot mate infusion, and hot caffeine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 824 32