Bean-Based Chewing Gum Cuts HPV by 93% in Patient Saliva Samples
Extracts of a bean-based chewing gum cut HPV by 93% in saliva samples from cancer patients. The lab study has not yet been tested in people.
A chewing gum made from lablab beans lowered levels of human papillomavirus (HPV) by 93% in saliva samples from patients with head and neck cancer, according to a study in Scientific Reports led by the University of Pennsylvania. The experiments were done in the laboratory on patient samples. Nobody has yet chewed the gum in a clinical trial.
A second, engineered version of the gum took two harmful bacterial species down to almost undetectable levels after a single dose of its extract. The mouth bacteria the team checked for collateral damage were left alone. The work was led by Henry Daniell at Penn’s School of Dental Medicine.
Three microbes in the crosshairs
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma starts in the thin, flat cells that line the mouth and throat. Daniell said newly approved cancer drugs have generally not brought big gains in patients’ quality of life or in five-year survival.
The team went after three microbes found in the mouth. One is HPV, a common virus that can cause certain cancers when an infection persists. The other two are bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), which are known from oral disease and from poorer outcomes in some cancer patients. Daniell said the worldwide rise in oropharyngeal cancer, which affects the middle of the throat including the tonsils and the base of the tongue, is tied to HPV infection.
How the gum was tested
The group had earlier developed a gum from lablab beans that contains FRIL, a naturally occurring protein with antiviral properties. For this study they dissolved extracts of the gum and applied them to oral samples collected from head and neck cancer patients. HPV fell by 93% in saliva samples and by 80% in oral rinse samples.
For the bacteria, the researchers engineered the gum to carry protegrin, an antimicrobial peptide. Peptides are short chains of amino acids, and some of them can destroy harmful microorganisms. One dose of the engineered extract pushed Pg and Fn to almost undetectable levels.
Sparing the helpful bacteria
The mouth hosts a community of microbes, the oral microbiome, and most of its members are harmless or useful. Some cancer treatments upset that balance. Radiation therapy, for example, can shrink populations of helpful bacteria and let potentially harmful yeast such as Candida albicans grow.
The gum extract sharply reduced the targeted bacteria and did not affect the beneficial bacterial populations the researchers examined, according to the report.
What is still unknown
Because the results come from tests on patient samples outside the body, it is not known whether the same effects occur in a living human mouth. It is also not known whether lowering these microbes would improve cancer outcomes. The source material states that there is no evidence yet that chewing the gum prevents or treats cancer in people.
Why it matters
The authors argue the results justify human clinical trials, either as an add-on to current treatments or as a way to prevent infection and transmission. Daniell noted that lip and oral cavity cancer ranked seventh among cancer types in both incidence and mortality worldwide in 2022 for adolescents, young adults and middle-aged adults. The researchers also believe a plant-based product could be a more affordable option for patients.
The paper is titled as an ex vivo study of head and neck cancer using saliva and antiviral or antibacterial gums (Scientific Reports, 2026, volume 16, DOI 10.1038/s41598-026-39062-w). Co-authors come from Penn Dental Medicine, the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of California at Los Angeles and the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. The work was supported by the NIH, UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute.
Source: ScienceDaily
