New insights on the anticancer properties of dietary polyphenols

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2006

Authors

Fresco, P (Author) FFUP; Borges, F (Author) FFUP; Diniz, C (Author) FFUP; Marques, MPM (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Medicinal Research Reviews

Vol. 26 No. 6

Pages: 747-766

ISSN: 0198-6325

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexing

ISI Proceedings

ISI Web of Knowledge - 436 Citations

Scopus - 506 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Basic medicine

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-004-GDW

DOI: 10.1002/med.20060

Abstract (EN): Cancer, one of the major causes of death across the world, has shown to be a largely preventable disease, highly susceptible to modulation by dietary factors. Phenolic compounds, abundant in vegetables and fruits ubiquitous in diet, were described to play an important role as chemopreventive agents. Since conventional therapeutic and surgical approaches have not been able to control the incidence of most cancer types, the development of chemopreventive strategies is an urgent priority in public health. The current diet phenolic intake is often insufficient to protect from mutagens (either exogenous or endogenous), which leads to the need for dietary supplementation as an alternative approach. Research efforts are placing increasing emphasis on identifying the biological mechanisms and in particular the signal transduction pathways related to the chemopreventive activities of these compounds. These effects are believed to occur by the regulation of signaling pathways such as nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B), activator protein-1 (AP-1) or mitoacn-activated protein kinases (MAPK). Dietary polyphenols can exert their effects on these pathways separately or sequentially and in addition the occurrence of crosstalk between these pathways cannot be overlooked. By modulating cell signaling pathways, polyphenols activate cell death signals and induce apoptosis in precancerous or malignant cells resulting in the inhibition of cancer development or progression. However, regulation of cell signaling pathways by dietary polyphenols can also lead to cell proliferation/survival or inflammatory responses due to increased expression of several genes. The present review summarizes the most recent advances providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the promising anti carcinogenic activity of dietary polyphenols. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 20