Q&A with Lorne Hofseth
Lorne Hofseth serves as the associate dean of research for the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy. Gamecock Pharmacist asked him to share his insights on his research into food additives, cancer and the vital role of pharmaceutical research.
What concerns surround synthetic food dyes like Red Dye #40?
Synthetic food dye is foreign to your body, like bacteria, like a virus, and stimulates an immune reaction, meaning there will be a low-grade simmering inflammation caused by that foreign agent.
Because inflammation is intimately linked to carcinogenesis — think of increased risk of colon cancer, pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, esophagitis, esophageal cancer — any tissue that’s exposed to long-term inflammation will have a high risk of cancer.
The FDA recently banned Red Dye #3. What is significant about this decision?
Red 3 has been knocked out because of studies done in 1987 and 1990 that showed Red 3 causes thyroid cancers in male rats. And that is what triggered what is called the Delaney Clause, which says that any food additives that cause cancer in humans or animals cannot be used in our food anymore.
You are working on a book about food dyes. What inspired this project?
There has been a rise in early onset colorectal cancer since the 1990s and this huge rise in synthetic food dyes since the 1970s and 80s, ten to 20 years earlier. It takes 10 to 20 years for cancer to develop, so there is a temporal relationship.
There isn’t a real robust book that highlights in the layman’s terms the history of synthetic food dyes, the mechanisms of how synthetic food dyes cause cancer, the mechanisms of how it might affect the brain and the mechanisms of how it might affect metabolism. I realized that I have the knowledge to write such a book.
What are some of the research areas being explored at USC College of Pharmacy?
We have more than 10 faculty that focus on cancer research from breast cancer to colon cancer to pancreatic cancer, even pediatric cancer.
We have an affinity group of neuroscientists now that are hugely successful. Our school also looks at addiction and behavior in clinical pharmacy, and we have faculty working with big data databases and outcomes of drugs.
Why is research so important at the USC College of Pharmacy?
We don’t discover without doing experiments. We can’t move forward in our understanding of drugs and how they work without doing experiments.