• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.89-96
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• 2001

Recently, considerable attention has been focused on the role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in the carcinogenesis as well as in inflammation. Improperly overexpressed COX-2 has been observed in many types of human cancers and transformed cells in culture. Thus, it is conceivable that targeted inhibition of abnormally or improperly up-regulated COX-2 provides one of the most effective and promising strategies for cancer prevention. A ubiquitous eukaryotic transcription factor, NF-kB is considered to be involved in regulation of COX-2 expression. Furthermore, extracellular-regulated protein kinase and p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase appear to be key elements of the intracellular signaling cascades involved in NF-kB activation in response to a wide array of external stimuli. Certain chemopreventive phytochemicals suppress activation of NF-kB by blocking one or more of the MAP kinases, which may contribute to their inhibitory effects on COX-2 induction. One of the plausible mechanisms by which chemopreventive phytochemicals inhibit NF-kB activation involves suppression of degradation of the inhibitory unit I kB, which hampers subsequent translocation of p65, the functionally active subunit of NF-kB.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.501-508
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• 2007

Proanthocyanidins (PACs), also named condensed tannins, are polymers of flavan-3-ols such as (+ )-(gallo)catechin and (-)-epi(gallo)catechin. A proper analysis of the PACs, with difficult challenges due to their complex structures, is crucial in studies of cancer chemoprevention. Cancer is a leading cause of mortality around the world. Many experimental studies have shown that dietary PACs are potential chemopreventive agents that block or suppress against multistage carcinogenesis in both in vitro and in vivo models. Cancer chemoprevention by dietary PACs has been shown effective through different mechanisms of action such as antioxidant, apoptosis-inducing, and enzyme inhibitory activities. Good sources of dietary PACs are nuts, fruits, beans, chocolate, fruit juice, red wine, and green tea. The chemopreventive potential of dietary PACs should be considered together with their bioavailability in humans. The safety issues regarding carcinogenesis and gastrointestinal disorder are also reviewed.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.111-117
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• 2010

Background & Objectives: Colorectal Cancer is 10% of all cancer incidence and the motality from colorectal cancer is nearly 450,000 a year. Since chemopreventive agents from Herbal medicine is hot issue recently, to prove antitumor effecicacy of Rhus vernifciflua STOKES decoction (Chijong-dan), clinical study was carried out. Here we report one patient with colorectal cancer of stage IV. The patient had a colorectal cancer (Stage IV, T4N2M1), lymph node metastases and underwent chemotherapy. Methods: The patient visited Hana oriental medicine Clinic in 2009 and was treated using Chijong-dan for 1 year at Hana Oriental Clinic. Results: Chijongdan showed no side effect during its treatment and tumor size was retarded based on CT scanning. Overall, this case report suggests that Rhus vernifciflua STOKES decoction can be a potent cancer preventive agents for colorectal cancer but it is still required to verify the scientific and clinical evidences for Rhus vernifciflua STOKES decoction (Chijong-dan).

• Toxicological Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2007

Chronic oxidative stress produced by exposure to environmental chemicals or pathophysiological states can lead animals to aging, carcinogenesis and degenerative diseases. Indirect antioxidative mechanisms, in which natural or synthetic agents are used to coordinately induce the expression of cellular antioxidant capacity, have been shown to protect cells and organisms from oxidative damages. Electrophile and free radical detoxifying enzymes, which were originally identified as the products of genes induced by cancer chemopreventive agents, are members of this protective system. The NFE2 family transcription factor Nrf2 was found to govern expression of these detoxifying enzymes, and screening for Nrf2-regulated genes has identified many gene categories involved in maintaining cellular redox potential and protection from oxidative damage as Nrf2 downstream genes. Further, studies using Nrf2-deficient mice revealed that these mutant mice showed more susceptible phenotypes towards exposure to environmental chemicals/carcinogens and in oxidative stress related disease models. With the finding that cancer chemopreventive efficacy of indirect antioxidants (enzyme inducers) is lost in the absence of Nrf2, a central role of Nrf2 in the antioxidative protective system has been firmly established. Promising results from cancer prevention clinical trials using enzyme inducers propose that pharmacological interventions that modulate Nrf2 can be an effective strategy to protect tissues from oxidative damage.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.10b
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• pp.109.2-110
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• 2003

Estrogen is the most important endocrine hormone that has reproduction and physiological process in a number of tissues. However, an excess of estrogen can promotes the growth of hormone-dependent breast cancer. Thus the regulation of estrogen level is important a prevention of estrogen-related cancer. It has been reported that some of flavonoids could inhibit estrogen-dependent cancer. And these compounds are expected as chemopreventive agents on estrogen related disease. (omitted)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.101-101
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• 2003

Prostaglandins (PGs) and nitric oxide (NO) produced by inducible cyclooygenase (COX-2) and nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), respectively, have been implicated as important mediators in the process of inflammation and carcinogenesis. On this line, the potential COX-2 or iNOS inhibitors have been considered as anti-inflammatory and cancer chemopreventive agents. In our continuing efforts of searching for novel cancer chemopreventive agents from natural products, we isolated natural sesquiterpenoids as potential COX-2 and iNOS inhibitors in cultured lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. Alantolactone, a natural eudesmane-type sesquiterpenoid, exhibited a potent inhibition of COX-2 (IC50 = 0.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$) and iNOS activity (IC50 = 0.08 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$) in the assay system determined by PGE2 and NO accumulation, respectively. The inhibitory potential of alantolactone on the PGE2 and NO production was well coincided with the suppression of COX-2 and iNOS protein and mRNA expression in LPS-induced macrophages. Furthermore, alantolactone inhibited NF-kB but not AP-l binding activity on nuclear extracts evoked by LPS-stimulated macrophage cells, suggesting the possible involvement of NF-kB in the regulation of COX-2 and iNOS expression. In further study with COX-2-expressing human colon HT-29 cells, alantolactone inhibited the cell proliferation, down-regulated COX-2, and inhibited the ERK phosphorylation in the early time. These results suggest that a natural sesquiterpenoid alantolactone might be a potential lead candidate for further developing COX-2 or iNOS inhibitor possessing cancer chemopreventive or anti-inflammatory activity

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.613-622
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• 2008

Cancer chemopreventive effects can be exerted through the induction of phase II detoxification enzymes and the inhibition of inflammatory responses. In this study, the cancer chemopreventive effects and anti-inflammatory responses of 30 seaweed extracts were examined. The extracts of Dictyota coriacea and Cutleria cylindrica exhibited the high chemoprevention index, having 4.36 and 4.66, respectively. They also activated antioxidant response element at $100\;{\mu}g/mL$ by about 3-fold while did not activate xenobiotic response element. Seven seaweed extracts, Ishige okamurae, Desmarestia ligulata, Desmarestia viridis, Dictyopteris divaricata, D. coriacea, Sargassum horneri, and Sargassum yezoense, showed significant inhibition on nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$) production in a dose-dependant manner in $5-20\;{\mu}g/mL$. These seaweed extracts could be used as food materials for cancer chemoprevention. D. coriacea could contain potential chemopreventive agents not only that regulate genes via an ARE-dependent mechanism but also prevent the inflammation through inhibition of NO and $PGE_2$ production.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.335-339
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• 2001

Cancer chemoprevention refers to the use of natural or synthetic substances to prevent initiational and promotional events that occur during the process of carcinogenesis. Thesium Chinese Turczaninow aqua-acupuncture solution (TCTAS) and Astragli Radix aqua-acupuncture solution (ARAS) were tested as the cancer chemopreventive agents using biochemical markers of carcinogenesis. The effects on the inhibition of phorbol 12- myristate 13-acetate(TPA)-induced free radical formation in HL-60 cells and the inhibition of polyamine metabolism were measured. There is significant inhibition of TAP-induced free radical formation in human leukemic cells with cells with ARAS. Proliferation of Acanthamoeba castellanii was inhibited by TCTAS and ARAS. TCTAS and ARAS positive in these assays may inhibit the carcinogenesis process and is considered promising cancer-preventing agents.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.177-178
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• 2002

Chemoprevention, one of the most innovative and promising areas of cancer research, refers to the prevention of cancer through pharmacologic or nutritional intervention. Recently, considerable attention has been focused on the role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in the carcinogenesis as well as inflammation. Inappropriate up-regulation of COX-2 is implicated in the pathophysiology of certain types of human cancers. (omitted)

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.427-436
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• 2012

Targeted therapy has been a very promising strategy of drug development research. Many molecular mechanims of diseases have been known to be regulated by abundance of proteins, such as receptors and hormones. Chemoprevention for treatment and prevention of diseases are continuously developed. Pre-clinical and clinical studies in chemoprevention field yielded many valuable data in preventing the onset of disease and suppressing the progress of their growth, making chemoprevention a challenging and a very rational strategy in future researches. Natural products being rich of flavonoids are those fruits belong to the genus citrus. Ethanolic extract of Citrus reticulata and Citrus aurantiifolia peels showed anticarcinogenic, antiproliferative, co-chemotherapeutic and estrogenic effects. Several examples of citrus flavonoids that are potential as chemotherapeutic agents are tangeretin, nobiletin, hesperetin, hesperidin, naringenin, and naringin. Those flavonoids have been shown to possess inhibition activity on certain cancer cells' growth through various mechanisms. Moreover, citrus flavonoids also perform promising effect in combination with several chemotherapeutic agents against the growth of cancer cells. Some mechanisms involved in those activities are through cell cycle modulation, antiangiogenic effect, and apoptosis induction.Previous studies showed that tangeretin suppressed the growth of T47D breast cancer cells by inhibiting ERK phosphorylation. While in combination with tamoxifen, doxorubicin, and 5-FU, respectively, it was proven to be synergist on several cancer cells. Hesperidin and naringenin increased cytotoxicitity of doxorubicin on MCF-7 cells and HeLa cells. Besides, citrus flavonoids also performed estrogenic effect in vivo. One example is hesperidin having the ability to decrease the concentration of serum and hepatic lipid and reduce osteoporosis of ovariectomized rats. Those studies showed the great potential of citrus fruits as natural product to be developed as not only the source of co-chemotherapeutic agents, but also phyto-estrogens. Therefore, further study needs to be conducted to explore the potential of citrus fruits in overcoming cancer.