Scientists Develop Bean-Based Chewing Gum That Traps HPV in 93% of Tested Saliva Samples

It traps HPV and kills cancer-associated bacteria. But can it prevent cancer?

A potential new weapon against cancer-linked infections comes in mint flavor; and its secret ingredient comes from an unlikely place: beans.

Scientists have developed a chewing gum that might one day help fight cancer-linked infections. And in laboratory tests involving saliva from cancer patients, the results were surprisingly promising.

Bean Protein vs. Cancer-Causing Virus

HPV is one of the world’s most common sexually transmitted infections. Most infections disappear naturally, but some persist for years. Certain strains can eventually cause cancer, and in the mouth, HPV can create tumors around the tonsils and at the base of the tongue.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPV causes an estimated 60% to 70% of cancers in the back of the throat in the United States.

Researchers led by Henry Daniell, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, wondered whether they could capture HPV particles in the mouth before they infect additional cells or spread to another person.

Their solution involved the lablab bean, also called the hyacinth bean. It naturally contains an antiviral protein called FRIL, which binds to sugars on the surfaces of viruses.

Imagine throwing a sticky net over a swarm of insects. This FRIL protein works somewhat similarly, linking virus particles into large clumps that can potentially prevent them from entering human cells.

The researchers incorporated this protein into an experimental chewing gum. They then tested extracts from it against HPV in saliva and mouth-rinse samples collected from patients with head and neck cancer.

×

Get smarter every day...

Stay ahead with ZME Science and subscribe.

Daily Newsletter
The science you need to know, every weekday.

Weekly Newsletter
A week in science, all in one place. Sends every Sunday.
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime. Review our Privacy Policy.

Thank you! One more thing...

Please check your inbox and confirm your subscription.

After mixing the extracts with the samples, they separated out the viral clumps and measured how much HPV remained in the liquid.

The results were striking. HPV particles aggregated in 13 of 14 saliva samples. The extent varied, but several samples showed reductions of more than 85% in detectable HPV after treatment. In HPV-positive mouth-rinse samples, the researchers reported an approximately 80% reduction in the viral signal.

In total, the HPV experiments drew on samples from 44 cancer patients.

But why chewing gum rather than a pill?

“Oral medicines get diluted in blood and are not suitable for concentrated local delivery at the site of infection,” Daniell told Women’s Health.

Chewing gum could release antiviral proteins precisely where they’re needed, rather than distributing them throughout the body.

There’s another advantage: the protein comes from a plant that can be cultivated relatively cheaply. And researchers have already developed gum tablets containing the ingredient, rather than merely proposing the idea on paper.

A Second Ingredient Goes After Bacteria

HPV wasn’t the researchers’ only target.

Two bacterial species, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum, have also been associated with poorer outcomes in some patients with head and neck cancer. They can promote inflammation and interfere with the body’s defenses, although their precise role in cancer isn’t entirely clear.

The researchers combined the bean gum extract with protegrin-1, an antimicrobial peptide that damages bacterial membranes.

The combination proved remarkably potent. After one hour of treatment, it reduced both targeted bacterial species by more than 99% in laboratory-tested patient samples.

Interestingly, the treatment appeared to spare some of the mouth’s normal bacterial residents. Certain streptococci, which are commonly found in a healthy oral microbiome, proved more resistant, possibly because protective capsules shield them from the antimicrobial compound. This raises the intriguing possibility of targeting harmful bacteria without wiping out their beneficial neighbors. However, this needs to be investigated in closer detail, the researchers suggest..

Eliminating harmful species without extensively disturbing beneficial ones could be especially valuable for cancer patients, whose treatments sometimes disrupt their oral microbiome.

The approach also builds on earlier research from Daniell’s team, which found that bean-derived antiviral chewing gum could neutralize influenza and herpes viruses in laboratory experiments.

Could Chewing Gum Actually Prevent Cancer?

As encouraging as this is, it’s important to take a step back and look at the big picture. There’s an enormous difference between trapping HPV in a laboratory sample and preventing cancer in a living person.

The researchers measured viral aggregation, not whether the gum stopped infections, prevented transmission, or reduced tumor growth. They also don’t know how long any protective effect would last inside the mouth.

Paolo Serafini, an immunologist at the University of Miami who wasn’t involved in the research, raised precisely this concern.

“We do not know how long the gum can take the bacteria and virus away,” Serafini told Women’s Health. “My guess is for an hour. That is not going to have a big impact.”

There’s also the question of what happens after the effect wears off. Would pathogens rapidly return? Would people have to chew several pieces every day? And could repeated exposure disturb the delicate balance of microbes that normally inhabit the mouth? And trapping viruses in saliva doesn’t necessarily eliminate infections already established in the tissues of the mouth and throat.

HPV vaccination remains the established preventive measure against cancer-causing HPV types. The experimental gum would not replace vaccination, cancer screening, or conventional treatments.

Still, Daniell believes the technology deserves clinical testing. In an August interview with the New York Post, he described plans for a four-week trial in which participants would chew the gum three times daily, pending regulatory approval.

He also argued that plant-derived proteins could make the treatment unusually inexpensive to manufacture.

RelatedPosts

Australia says ‘bye bye’ to rubella. Cervical cancer is next
Scientists Can Now Design Proteins by Describing What They Want in Plain English
An Artificial Sweetener Could Be the Next Big Breakthrough Against Hair Loss
Therapeutic vaccine shows promise of treatment against HPV infections that lead to cancer

If human trials confirm that the gum works safely and consistently inside the mouth, it could eventually offer a convenient way to reduce exposure to certain cancer-linked microbes.

For now, it’s an inventive laboratory experiment, not a cancer treatment. But the idea is compelling: instead of waiting for a dangerous infection to do damage, perhaps one day we could chew away at the risk.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.