Choline and betaine intakes are associated with reduced risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in adults: a case–control study

Abstract

Background:Intakes of choline and betaine have been inversely related to the risk of various neoplasms, but scant data exist on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We examined the association between consumption of choline and betaine and risk of NPC.Methods:We conducted a case–control study with 600 incident NPC patients and 600 controls 1 : 1 matched by age, sex and household type in Guangdong, China. Dietary intake was assessed by a food frequency questionnaire through face-to-face interview.Results:Intakes of total choline, betaine and choline+betaine were inversely related to NPC after adjustment for various lifestyle and dietary factors (all P-trend <0.001). Adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) for quartile 4 (vs quartile 1) were 0.42 (0.29, 0.61) for total choline, 0.50 (0.35, 0.72) for betaine and 0.44 (0.30, 0.64) for betaine+total choline. Regarding various sources of choline, lower NPC risk was associated with greater intakes of choline from phosphatidylcholine, free choline, glycerophosphocholine and phosphocholine, but not sphingomyelin.Conclusion:These findings are consistent with a beneficial effect of choline and betaine intakes on carcinogenesis.

Conventional and Unconventional Therapeutic Strategies for Sialidosis Type I

“…As an osmolyte, betaine increases the water retention of cells, replaces inorganic salts, and protects against osmotic shocks [35]. Betaine has been used with good results in a variety of experimental disease models, including AGA, alcohol liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes and multiple sclerosis [15,24,25,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. Although its mechanism of action is not fully understood, it is suggested to act primarily as methyl donor in several metabolic reactions, or to influence epigenetic marks.…”

Choline and Betaine Intakes Are Not Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Risk in Japanese Men and Women

“…When data were not available, values published by de Zwart et al (21), Zeizel et al (22), and Lewis et al (23) (choline only) were used. Previous studies on dietary betaine and choline conducted among non-US populations have used these data (12,(24)(25)(26). Total choline is the sum of free choline, glycerophosphocholine, phosphocholine, phosphatidylcholine, and sphingomyelin.…”

Use of STAT6 Phosphorylation Inhibitor and Trimethylglycine as New Adjuvant Therapies for 5-Fluorouracil in Colitis-Associated Tumorigenesis

“…In addition, several reports found that Trimethylglycine has an anti-inflammatory effect on different diseases [10,11]. Particularly, in cancer it has been reported that Trimethylglycine intake may reduce the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, breast, lung, liver, and colorectal cancer, highlighting a possible protective effect in the inhibition of tumor development [10,46], but the specific effect of its treatment has not yet been established. Here we showed that the use of Trimethylglycine has important effects on the development of colon tumorigenesis in the CAC model, but its use as a novel adjuvant therapy together with 5-FU enhances the effect of this chemotherapeutic drug.…”