Dietary Phenolics as Cancer Chemopreventive Nutraceuticals: A Promising Paradigm
Pp. 32-92 (61)
Mohammad F. Ullah, Showket H. Bhat, Eram Hussain, Faisel Abu-Duhier, Husain Y. Khan, Mohammad Aatif, Aamir Ahmad and Sheikh M. Hadi
Abstract
Cancer development is a dynamic and long term process which involves
many complex factors through critical steps of initiation, promotion and progression,
leading to an uncontrolled growth of cancerous cells throughout the body. It is believed
that dietary constituents derived from plant sources have the ability to modify the
process of carcinogenesis thus relating the food stuffs, beyond their basic nutritional
benefits, to disease prevention. The concept of nutritional approach to disease
prevention and therapy has thus given way to the popularity of bioactive components of
food known as nutraceuticals. Nutraceuticals may range from isolated nutrients, herbal
products, dietary supplements and special diets to genetically engineered ‘designer’
foods and processed products such as cereals, soups and beverages. Phenolic
nutraceuticals derived from fruits, wines, vegetables and spices have been the subject of
considerable scientific research in the last few decades for their chemopreventive action
against cancer. These include curcumin (from the spice turmeric), resveratrol (from red
grapes and red wine), epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG, from green tea), ellagic acid
and delphinidin (from pomegranate juice) and genistein (from soybean). Several
mechanisms of pleiotropic action have been identified for the anti-cancer properties of
these dietary agents, including induction of cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis, targeting the
inflammatory and oxidative pathways and modulating the activities of signaling
molecules critical to cellular growth and proliferation. The regulation of cancer cell
growth by dietary nutraceuticals involves multiple molecular targets and thus unlike
drugs these may have the advantage of simultaneously influencing various pathways
that go awry in a complex multifactorial disease like cancer. Accumulating evidence in
literature, based on epidemiological and laboratory (both in vitro and in vivo) studies,
reveals the properties of dietary phenolics that can form the basis of their consideration
as lead molecules in the synthesis of novel anti-cancer drugs and to further explore their
role as pharmacologically active natural adjuvants to standard chemotherapeutic
approaches. The underlying sections of this chapter will specifically focus on how
nutraceuticals modulate the essential cellular pathways and thus affect the survival,
proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis of the tumor.
Keywords:
Nutraceuticals, plant polyphenols, cancer chemoprevention, anticancer,
apoptosis, cell signaling.
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Tabuk, Tabuk-71491, KSA.
