Advanced Drug-Delivery Systems of Curcumin for Cancer Chemoprevention.
Bansal SS, Goel M, Aqil F, Vadhanam MV, Gupta RC.
Source
1James Graham Brown Cancer Center / Dept of Phramacology or Toxicology D / Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville.
Abstract
From ancient times, chemopreventive agents have been used to treat/prevent several diseases, including cancer. They are found to elicit a spectrum of potent responses including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-proliferative, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-angiogenic activity in various cell culture and some animal studies. Research over the past four decades has shown that chemopreventives affect a number of proteins involved in various molecular pathways that regulate inflammatory and carcinogenic responses in a cell. Various enzymes, transcription factors, receptors, and adhesion proteins are also affected by chemopreventives. Although, these natural compounds have shown significant efficacy in cell-culture studies, they elicited limited efficacy in various clinical studies. Their introduction into the clinical setting is hindered largely by their poor solubility, rapid metabolism, or a combination of both, ultimately resulting in poor bioavailability upon oral administration. Therefore, to circumvent these limitations and to ease their transition to clinics, alternate strategies should be explored. Drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles, liposomes, microemulsions, and polymeric implantable devices are emerging as one of the viable alternatives that have been demonstrated to deliver therapeutic concentrations of various potent chemopreventives such as curcumin, ellagic acid, green tea polyphenols, and resveratrol into the systemic circulation. In this review article, we have attempted to provide a comprehensive outlook for these delivery approaches, using curcumin as a model agent, and discussed future strategies to enable the introduction of these highly potent chemopreventives into a physician's armamentarium.
Synergism between resveratrol and other phytochemicals: Implications for obesity and osteoporosis.
Rayalam S, Della-Fera MA, Baile CA.
Source
Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Abstract
Resveratrol, a phytoalexin, has gained much attention recently due to its effects on sirtuins. While the anti-cancer properties of resveratrol have been extensively investigated, the anti-adipogenic and osteogenic effects of resveratrol are also gaining considerable interest. The finding that resveratrol supplementation mimics caloric restriction prompted researchers to study the effects of resveratrol on lipid metabolism. Mesenchymal stem cells are the precursors for both adipocytes and osteoblasts. In the aging population, differentiation to adipocytes dominates over the differentiation to osteoblasts in bone marrow, contributing to the increased tendency for fractures to occur in the elderly. Thus, an inverse relationship exists between adipocytes and osteoblasts in the bone marrow. Resveratrol acts on several molecular targets in adipocytes and osteoblasts leading to a decrease in adipocyte number and size and an increase in osteogenesis. Furthermore, resveratrol in combination with genistein and quercetin synergistically decreased adipogenesis in murine and human adipocytes. A recent in vivo study showed that phytochemicals including resveratrol in combination with vitamin D prevented weight gain and bone loss in a postmenopausal rat model. Therefore, combinations of resveratrol with other phytochemicals may lead to potential novel potent therapies for both obesity and osteoporosis.
Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
PMID: 21538845 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Resveratrol induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells by E2F1-mediated up-regulation of ASPP1.
Shi Y, Yang S, Troup S, Lu X, Callaghan S, Park DS, Xing Y, Yang X.
Source
Department of Physiology, College of Basic Medical Science, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan, P.R. China.
Abstract
Resveratrol is a natural polyphenolic compound with cancer chemopreventive activity. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanism responsible for resveratrol-induced apoptosis is still very limited. Here, we used MCF-7 and MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells as a model to demonstrate that resveratrol induced the expression of ASPP1, a new member of the ASPP (apoptosis stimulation protein of p53) family, which plays an important role in the regulation of apoptosis. Moreover, resveratrol enhanced apoptosis of MCF-7/ASPP1 cells, accompanied by higher expression of bax and p21. In contrast, siRNA-mediated knockdown of ASPP1 inhibited apoptosis in MB231 cells. Furthermore, we found that higher levels of ASPP1 were associated with adenovirus-mediated overexpression of E2F1 while siRNA-mediated E2F1 knockdown led to down-regulation of ASPP1. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that overexpression of ASPP1 rendered MCF-7 and MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells more sensitive to resveratrol-mediated apoptosis via the E2F pathway, thus suggesting that ASPP1 may represent a novel therapeutic target for resveratrol in human breast cancer.
PMID: 21479363