20 19, 17 on may 7th, this paper entitled "inhibitorypathway" unveiled the mystery of broccoli. Researchers at Deaconess Medical Center of Harvard Medical School pointed out that E3 ubiquitin ligase (WWP 1) is one of the culprits for the decrease of PTEN activation in tumor cells. At the same time, they found that indole -3- methanol (I3C) in broccoli can effectively restore PTEN activity, thus inhibiting the occurrence and development of cancer.

Simply put, PTEN can regulate the process of cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion by regulating PI3K/Akt pathway, thus inhibiting the occurrence and development of tumors. However, the mutation and abnormal expression of PTEN gene are difficult to control. Therefore, activation/reactivation, improving PTEN activity and restoring it to normal level are the keys to related cancer treatment. Through immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry analysis, the researchers found that WWP 1 can specifically trigger the ubiquitination of PTEN, thus preventing the local recruitment and dimerization of PTEN, thus reducing the anticancer function of PTEN. In addition, WWP 1 is highly expressed in many cancers.

In short, the high expression of WWP 1 and PTEN activity are mutually exclusive. I3C is often found in cruciferous plants such as broccoli, which can effectively inhibit the function of WWP 1. On the other hand, the experimental animals with high expression of WWP 1 produced by MYC overexpression were treated with I3C for one month, and the tumor volume was obviously reduced. The researchers pointed out that I3C can remove the ubiquitination modification of PTEN through WWP 1, so that PTEN can return to the plasma membrane and collect dimerization, thus exerting its anti-cancer function.