A chemical found in a chili pepper has shown it packs a potential breast cancer-fighting punch.

The latest “hot” news on research into capsaicin – the ingredient in peppers that gives them their pungency – has shown that it can “inhibit the growth” of such cancer cells, according to researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, and fellow scientists at the Augusta clinics in Bochum, the hospital Herz-Jesu-Krankenhaus Dernbach and the Centre of Genomics in Cologne.

Dr. Hanns Hatt and Dr. Lea Weber reported their findings in the journal "Breast Cancer — Targets and Therapy".

“Analyzing channel activation, we demonstrated anti-proliferative, anti-migratory and apoptosis/necrosis-inducing effects of capsaicin treatment, due to the activation of TRPV1 in SUM149PT cells, which is a model system for triple-negative inflammatory breast cancer, the most aggressive breast cancer subtype,” the researchers concluded.

“Triple-negative” cancer is so-called because it typically tests negative for HER2, estrogen and progesterone.

At present, chemotherapy is its only therapeutic option.

Their research revealed that the transient receptor potential channel TRPV1, which has links to cancer “hallmarks” via its role in regulating intracellular calcium, could be activated by capsaicin. “That receptor is activated by the spicy molecule capsaicin, as well as by helional — a scent of fresh sea breeze,” they observed.

This “caused significant inhibition” of cancer cell development, observed the researchers. Adding capsaicin to cell cultures caused cancer cells to divide more slowly, they found. Tumor cells also died off “in greater numbers,” and those that made it through their peppery treatment were slower moving — and less able to metastasize.

The presence of TRPV1 was confirmed in nine different samples of tumor cells from patients with breast cancer.

"If we could switch on the TRPV1 receptor with specific drugs, this might constitute a new treatment approach for this type of cancer," Hatt observed.

Capsaicin-like chemicals have been studied before, noted the researcher.

Arvanil, which is similar in structure to it, has shown promise against brain tumors in mice, although its side-effects proved it inappropriate for human trials.

In 2015, Indian researchers Ashok Kumar Mishra and Jitendriya Swain, determined that capsaicin “binds to a cell's surface and affects the membrane, which surrounds and protects the cell."

They reported that their research into prostate cancer had shown that the spicy molecule “lodges in the membranes near the surface,” they advised in their article in the American Chemical Society's “The Journal of Physical Chemistry B,” adding, “add enough of it, and the capsaicin essentially causes the membranes to come apart. With additional research, this insight could help lead to novel tools against cancer or other conditions.”

In other peppery anti-cancer news, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researcher Dr. Kenneth Westover and his team have uncovered the chemistry behind the Indian long pepper's impact on cancer.

“We are hopeful that our structure will enable additional drug development efforts to improve the potency of PL for use in a wide range of cancer therapies,” Westover, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Radiation Oncology and member of the UT Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a statement. “This research is a spectacular demonstration of the power of x-ray crystallography.”

The work, which appeared in the “Journal of Biological Chemistry,” used X-ray crystallography to show how the chemical Piperlongumine (PL) turns into hPL after it is ingested.

That agent shuts down the GSTP1 gene, which creates a detoxification enzyme often found in excess in tumors.