Advances of Green Tea Catechins towards Smart Anticancer Agents

Dong Wook Han

doi:10.4172/2167-0501.1000e153

Abstract

Green tea catechins (GTCs) have shown cancer chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects in numerous cell culture systems, animal tumor models, and epidemiologic studies [1,2]. EGCG targets multiple essential survival proteins and pathways in human cancer cells. The anticancer activities of GTCs are believed to be mostly mediated by epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG), the most abundant and bioactive compound in green tea [1]. Many researchers have already reported that EGCG or its analogs results in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of several cancer cells, but not of normal cells [3-8]. However, the underlying mechanism of these differential responses to EGCG in cancer cells versus their normal counterparts is not fully elucidated yet. Even though the selective anticancer mode of action mechanism of EGCG is multifaceted, some of feasible mechanisms, known so far, are as follows:

Highlights

Many researchers have already reported that EGCG or its analogs results in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of several cancer cells, but not of normal cells [3,4,5,6,7,8]
Even though the selective anticancer mode of action mechanism of EGCG is multifaceted, some of feasible mechanisms, known so far, are as follows: 1. One scenario is supported by some evidence that EGCG selectively modulates and affects cell cycle-related molecular targets involved in cell proliferation, survival and apoptosis in cancer cells from normal cells [9,10,11] ; 2
Another story emphasizes that cellular uptake and further nuclear translocation pattern of EGCG in cancer cells are completely different from their normal counterparts – EGCG became concentrated predominantly in the nucleus of cancer cells, while it widely distributed into the cytoplasm of normal cells and partly translocated into the nucleus [12,13,14] ; and

Summary

Introduction

Differential Cellular Responses to EGCG of Cancer Cells versus Normal Cells Green tea catechins (GTCs) have shown cancer chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects in numerous cell culture systems, animal tumor models, and epidemiologic studies [1,2]. EGCG targets multiple essential survival proteins and pathways in human cancer cells.

Results

Conclusion