Abstract
Many plant-derived, dietary polyphenols have been studied for their chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic properties against human cancers, including green tea polyphenols, genistein (found in soy), apigenin (celery, parsley), luteolin (broccoli), quercetin (onions), kaempferol (broccoli, grapefruits), curcumin (turmeric), etc. The more we understand their involved molecular mechanisms and cellular targets, the better we could utilize these “natural gifts” for the prevention and treatment of human cancer. Furthermore, better understanding of their structure-activity relationships will guide synthesis of analog compounds with improved bio-availability, stability, potency and specificity. This review focuses on green tea polyphenols and seeks to summarize several reported biological effects of tea polyphenols in human cancer systems, highlight the molecular targets and pathways identified, and discuss the role of tea polyphenols in the prevention and treatment of human cancer. The review also briefly describes several other dietary polyphenols and their biological effects on cancer prevention and chemotherapy.
Highlights
It is estimated by the American Cancer Society that in 2007, there will have been more than 12.3 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million deaths from cancers worldwide [1]
In this review we summarize the effects of some well studied natural compounds, with green tea polyphenols as a focus, against cancers and their potential molecular targets
We found that the protected analogs exhibited greater potency compared to (-)EGCG regarding inhibited proliferation and transforming activity and induction of apoptosis in human leukemic, prostate, breast, and simian virus 40-transformed cells [19, 20]
Summary
It is estimated by the American Cancer Society that in 2007, there will have been more than 12.3 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million deaths from cancers worldwide [1]. The growing amount of evidence from studies in epidemiology, cell cultures and animal tumor models demonstrates that a large number of natural compounds from the diet could lower cancer risk and some of them could sensitize tumor cells in anti-cancer therapies [2,3,4,5]. For cancer prevention and chemotherapy, plant-derived natural compounds are an invaluable treasure and worthy to be further explored. In this review we summarize the effects of some well studied natural compounds, with green tea polyphenols as a focus, against cancers and their potential molecular targets. 2. Natural Compounds and Their Molecular Targets for Cancer Prevention and Treatment
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