A recent study claims that a particular compound present in drinking red wine may actually help in killing cancer cells. Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, can be modified to enter the human body tissues and kill malignant cells.

According to the study published in Science Translational Medicine, resveratrol sulfates, which are found in the intestinal tissues and blood samples, can help in treating cancer. The research explained that the unmodified resveratrol present in red wine has no anti-cancer properties and red wine consumption alone is not found helpful in killing cancer cells. But it noted the red wine compound has yet to be modified in a lab to be used for anti-cancer therapies.

The study was conducted to 60 volunteers who consumed resveratrol everyday for minimum half a gram. Lead researcher Karen Brown of the University of Leicester (England) said their bodies were quick enough to produce metabolized forms, a stunning finding which could be path-breaking in treating cancers.

Cell membranes contain proteins which help resveratrol sulfates to be converted in the cells. When the experiment was done in mice, it showed sulfate metabolites became resveratrol again when they get ingested inside the cells. This transformation helps them work against cancer cells.

The research was funded by the Cancer Research UK. This discovery was finally tested in human cells and showed similar results. The regenerated resveratrol can kill malignant cells and turned out harmless to non-cancerous cells.

Brown said this can be a "strong evidence" that resveratrol can be highly beneficial in many cancer cases. It may be used to protect the patient from different types of cancers and heart diseases. In turn, this may extend the overall lifespan of the people.