Abstract
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have become the largest contributor to worldwide morbidity and mortality. Among them, cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for a 47% of worldwide mortality. In general, preventive approaches modifying lifestyle are more cost-effective than treatments after disease onset. In this sense, a healthy diet could help a range of NCDs, such as cancer and CVDs. Traditional Mediterranean Diet (MD) is associated by the low-prevalence of certain types of cancers and CVDs, where olive oil plays an important role. In fact, different epidemiological studies suggest that olive oil consumption prevents some cancers, as well as coronary heart diseases and stroke incidence and mortality. Historically, the beneficial health effects of virgin olive oil (VOO) intake were first attributed to the high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids. Nowadays, many studies indicate that phenolic compounds contained in olive oil have positive effects on different biomarkers related to health. Among them, phenolic compounds would be partially responsible for health benefits. The present work aims to explore, in studies published during the last five years, the effects of the main phenolic compounds isolated from olive oil on different cancer or CVD aspects, in order to clarify which compounds have more potential to be used as nutraceuticals with preventive or even therapeutic properties.
Highlights
Nowadays, Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have become the largest contributor to worldwide morbidity and mortality even in low- and middle-income countries, causing 17 million of premature deaths [1]
Anti-proliferative effects have been associated with an arrest of cell cycle in G2/M phase (Figure 1) in TFK-1 and KMBC human cholangiocarcinoma cells, GBS-SD human gallbladder cancer cells [72] and several hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2, Hep3B, SK-HEP-1 and Huh-7) [73], which resulted in cellular apoptosis in many but not all cell types [72]
It was demonstrated that treatments with HT or polyphenol extract from extra virgin OO (EVOO) reverted multiple changes induced by high glucose and free fatty acids (FFAs) which included nitric oxide (NO) level reduction and increased endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels induced by acetylcholine by modulating intracellular Ca2+ levels and endothelial nitric oxide synthase phosphorylation
Summary
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have become the largest contributor to worldwide morbidity and mortality even in low- and middle-income countries, causing 17 million of premature deaths (under the age of 70) [1]. It has been estimated that between 30 and 50% of cancers [3], as well as most CVDs, are largest preventable by healthy lifestyle choices Both pathologies share behavioral risk factors, such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol that could be addressed using population-wide strategies to reduce mortality and morbidity associated [4,5]. Concerning fat, unsaturated fats are preferable to saturated fats [7] and trans-fats should be reduced to less than 1% of total energy intake [6,7] This is supported by the low-prevalence found for some NCDs including certain types of cancers and CVDs in countries from the Mediterranean region in comparison to the other parts of the world [9,10,11,12,13,14]. A similar association of adherence to a Mediterranean Diet (MD) with cancer mortality, risk of several cancer types [15], and CVD incidence and its associated mortality have been reported [15,16]
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