10.2 Cancer Influenced by Dietary Compounds
Cancer is set to become a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the coming
decades in every region of the world. The United Nations (UN) has forecast that
the global population will reach 8 billion by 2030. The effect of population aging
and growth will be greatest in low-income and middle-income countries. These
changes translate to a predicted global burden of 20.3 million new cancer cases by
2030 compared with an estimated 12.7 million cases in 2008, and a predicted
13.2 million cancer-related deaths worldwide by 2030, from 7.6 million in 2008
(Bray et al. 2012).
Natural products are potential source of chemical constituents with antitumor
and cytotoxic activities owing to their enormous metabolism, which synthesize
various structurally diverse bioactive compounds. Medicinal plants can reduce or
minimize the toxic side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatment by reinforcing their cancer abating action. In addition, medicinal plants have significant
roles in the treatment of cancer and most new clinical applications of plant secondary metabolites and their derivatives have been applied toward fighting cancer
(Nema et al. 2013).
Recently, Melchini et al. (2013) reported the antiproliferative activity of the
dietary isothiocyanate erucin, a bioactive compound from cruciferous vegetables,
on human prostate cancer cells. Erucin increased p21 protein expression and
ERK1/2 phosphorylation significantly (P B 0.01) in a dose-dependent manner
inhibiting PC3 cell proliferation. A microarray gene expression analysis identified
the curcumin-regulated genes in a highly invasive human breast carcinoma cell
line (MDA-MB 231) (Cine et al. 2013). Gene set enrichment analyses on our
whole genome expression data revealed downregulation of the epidermal grow
factor (EGF) pathway elements following curcumin treatment. Furthermore, gene
network analysis revealed a significantly relevant network among the differentially
expressed genes, centered on the EGR1 and FOS genes. The members of these
pathways and networks play an essential role in the regulation of cancer cell
growth and development. According to a genome-wide transcriptomics analysis,
rosemary polyphenols alter the expression of *4 % of the genes covered by the
Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0ST chip in human SW480 and HT29 colon cancer
cells (Valdés et al. 2013). However, only *18 % of the differentially expressed
genes were common to both cell lines, indicating markedly different expression
profiles in response to the treatment. Differences in induction of G2/M arrest cycle
observed after rosemary polyphenols treatment in the two colon adenocarcinoma
cell lines suggest that the extract may be differentially effective against tumors
with specific mutational pattern. Furthermore, recent findings revealed that polyphenols could interact with cellular signaling cascades regulating the activity of
transcription factors and consequently modulate gene expression. Together with
this classical regulatory pathway, polyphenols affect the expression of microRNAs
(miRNA). miRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs implicated in the regulation of
292
R. Campos-Vega et al.
Cancer is set to become a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the coming
decades in every region of the world. The United Nations (UN) has forecast that
the global population will reach 8 billion by 2030. The effect of population aging
and growth will be greatest in low-income and middle-income countries. These
changes translate to a predicted global burden of 20.3 million new cancer cases by
2030 compared with an estimated 12.7 million cases in 2008, and a predicted
13.2 million cancer-related deaths worldwide by 2030, from 7.6 million in 2008
(Bray et al. 2012).
Natural products are potential source of chemical constituents with antitumor
and cytotoxic activities owing to their enormous metabolism, which synthesize
various structurally diverse bioactive compounds. Medicinal plants can reduce or
minimize the toxic side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatment by reinforcing their cancer abating action. In addition, medicinal plants have significant
roles in the treatment of cancer and most new clinical applications of plant secondary metabolites and their derivatives have been applied toward fighting cancer
(Nema et al. 2013).
Recently, Melchini et al. (2013) reported the antiproliferative activity of the
dietary isothiocyanate erucin, a bioactive compound from cruciferous vegetables,
on human prostate cancer cells. Erucin increased p21 protein expression and
ERK1/2 phosphorylation significantly (P B 0.01) in a dose-dependent manner
inhibiting PC3 cell proliferation. A microarray gene expression analysis identified
the curcumin-regulated genes in a highly invasive human breast carcinoma cell
line (MDA-MB 231) (Cine et al. 2013). Gene set enrichment analyses on our
whole genome expression data revealed downregulation of the epidermal grow
factor (EGF) pathway elements following curcumin treatment. Furthermore, gene
network analysis revealed a significantly relevant network among the differentially
expressed genes, centered on the EGR1 and FOS genes. The members of these
pathways and networks play an essential role in the regulation of cancer cell
growth and development. According to a genome-wide transcriptomics analysis,
rosemary polyphenols alter the expression of *4 % of the genes covered by the
Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0ST chip in human SW480 and HT29 colon cancer
cells (Valdés et al. 2013). However, only *18 % of the differentially expressed
genes were common to both cell lines, indicating markedly different expression
profiles in response to the treatment. Differences in induction of G2/M arrest cycle
observed after rosemary polyphenols treatment in the two colon adenocarcinoma
cell lines suggest that the extract may be differentially effective against tumors
with specific mutational pattern. Furthermore, recent findings revealed that polyphenols could interact with cellular signaling cascades regulating the activity of
transcription factors and consequently modulate gene expression. Together with
this classical regulatory pathway, polyphenols affect the expression of microRNAs
(miRNA). miRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs implicated in the regulation of
292
R. Campos-Vega et al.