Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Laboratory, Division of Gastroenterology, Baylor Research Institute and Charles A Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75246, USA.
Biochem Pharmacol. 2010 Dec 15;80(12):1771-92. doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2010.06.036. Epub 2010 Jun 26.
Epigenetics refers to heritable changes that are not encoded in the DNA sequence itself, but play an important role in the control of gene expression. In mammals, epigenetic mechanisms include changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs. Although epigenetic changes are heritable in somatic cells, these modifications are also potentially reversible, which makes them attractive and promising avenues for tailoring cancer preventive and therapeutic strategies. Burgeoning evidence in the last decade has provided unprecedented clues that diet and environmental factors directly influence epigenetic mechanisms in humans. Dietary polyphenols from green tea, turmeric, soybeans, broccoli and others have shown to possess multiple cell-regulatory activities within cancer cells. More recently, we have begun to understand that some of the dietary polyphenols may exert their chemopreventive effects in part by modulating various components of the epigenetic machinery in humans. In this article, we first discuss the contribution of diet and environmental factors on epigenetic alterations; subsequently, we provide a comprehensive review of literature on the role of various dietary polyphenols. In particular, we summarize the current knowledge on a large number of dietary agents and their effects on DNA methylation, histone modifications and regulation of expression of the non-coding miRNAs in various in vitro and in vivo models. We emphasize how increased understanding of the chemopreventive effects of dietary polyphenols on specific epigenetic alterations may provide unique and yet unexplored novel and highly effective chemopreventive strategies for reducing the health burden of cancer and other diseases in humans.
表观遗传学是指那些不编码在 DNA 序列本身中的可遗传变化，但在控制基因表达中起着重要作用。在哺乳动物中，表观遗传机制包括 DNA 甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码 RNA 的变化。虽然表观遗传变化在体细胞中是可遗传的，但这些修饰也是潜在可逆的，这使得它们成为定制癌症预防和治疗策略的有吸引力和有前途的途径。在过去十年中，大量涌现的证据提供了前所未有的线索，表明饮食和环境因素直接影响人类的表观遗传机制。绿茶、姜黄、大豆、西兰花和其他植物中的膳食多酚已被证明在癌细胞内具有多种细胞调节活性。最近，我们开始理解，一些膳食多酚可能通过调节人类表观遗传机制的各种成分来发挥其化学预防作用。在本文中，我们首先讨论了饮食和环境因素对表观遗传改变的贡献；随后，我们全面回顾了关于各种膳食多酚作用的文献。特别是，我们总结了大量膳食因子及其对 DNA 甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码 miRNA 表达调控的影响的大量文献。我们强调了对膳食多酚对特定表观遗传改变的化学预防作用的理解的增加，如何为减少癌症和其他人类疾病的健康负担提供独特且尚未探索的新颖而高效的化学预防策略。
