Natural Cancer Chemopreventive Reagents from Food and Herbals

Natural Products as Cancer Chemo Preventive Agents: Where We Stand

This work briefly reviews cancer chemoprevention. This is a very challenging field, as products with a high level of toxicity such as chemotherapeutic agents may be proposed and accepted only under life-threatening conditions. Cancer chemoprevention is otherwise limited to completely safe substances, preferably having neither toxic nor side effects, administered in relatively low amounts. Phases of clinical trials, therapeutic end-points, and biomarkers of chemoprevention are difficult to be defined. The clinical trials needed to prove the efficacy of chemopreventive agents must be very long and extremely widespread to achieve significance, with many variables difficult to control, and therefore subjected to many confounding factors. This makes them almost impossible. It is, therefore, no surprise, if the progress of chemoprevention has been so far very limited. There are only a few examples of direct use of chemopreventive agents, under investigation, but with anything but established protocols, in addition to indirect uses such as general supplementation with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-supportive agents. Cancer chemoprevention remains a potentially very rewarding approach, certainly worth further study, but extremely difficult to pursue, in need of different methodological approaches to producing valuable chemopreventive compounds of clear dosages and benefits.

Incorporation of natural assumption to deal with cancer

The current state of the art for the use of natural ingredients for cancer therapy is by reviewing the publications and findings associated with cancer research with the employment of flavonoids. Cancer is the most furious disease making fear in the eyes of mankind. Though various treatment methods are prevalent, the patient's choices are shifting from synthetic treatment strategy to the natural ones. The plant-based metabolites are used very often in our life as a food additive and also as a medicine for primary health care. The safety profile and its efficacy add on advantage for the incorporation of the natural products separately or in combination as a remedy for cancer. Flavonoids, the plant-based metabolites are proven for their anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer properties. Their chemotherapeutic and chemosensitizing power had made it interesting for the researchers to dig more on the health benefits of the flavonoids and incorporating it in a holistic approach, with its natural benefits to relieve the pain and the symptoms of the patient suffering from various medical conditions. The predominant approach for the management of cancer is by following safe and effective treatment modality. In this review, we mentioned the benefits of the flavonoids for the management of various cancers and its potency as a chemotherapeutic agent and as the chemosensitizer. Our mother nature had given remedies to cure various diseases in both human beings and animals by it; we just need to find out the sources and access to them.

Structural insight into the antagonistic action of diarylheptanoid on human estrogen receptor alpha

Estrogen receptor α (ER α) is an important therapeutic target in the regulation of ligand dependent signaling in breast cancer. The current study investigates the anti-estrogenic potential of the Diarylheptanoid, 5-hydroxy-7-(4-hydroxy-3 methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-3-heptanone (DAH) in silico. Rigid Docking analysis of DAH at the ligand binding domain (LBD) of ER α showed hydrogen bond interactions with Arg394 and Glu353 at the active site, similar to the positive controls 4-Hydroxy Tamoxifen (4-OHT) and Fulvestrant (FUL). The protein and the protein-DAH complexes were further analyzed using molecular dynamics simulations for a time scale of 50 ns using GROMACS. Root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) analysis showed large fluctuations at the N-terminal region of Helices (H) 3, 9 and at the C-terminal region of H11, which could be involved in the antagonistic conformational change. Interestingly, H12 appeared to move away from the ligand binding pocket and occupy the co-activator binding groove at the LBD of ER α. Secondary structure analysis of the protein upon binding of DAH and CUR showed structural change from α-helix to Turn conformation at H4. We hypothesize that this structural change at H4, similar to the positive control, could hinder the activity of AF-2 by blocking the binding of co-activator. These conformational changes in ER α indicate an anti-estrogenic and therapeutic potential of the DAH.