Department of Pathology, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 740 Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, 4100 John R, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
Nutrients. 2011 Oct;3(10):877-96. doi: 10.3390/nu3100877.
Soy isoflavones have been documented as dietary nutrients broadly classified as "natural agents" which plays important roles in reducing the incidence of hormone-related cancers in Asian countries, and have shown inhibitory effects on cancer development and progression in vitro and in vivo, suggesting the cancer preventive or therapeutic activity of soy isoflavones against cancers. Emerging experimental evidence shows that isoflavones could induce cancer cell death by regulating multiple cellular signaling pathways including Akt, NF-κB, MAPK, Wnt, androgen receptor (AR), p53 and Notch signaling, all of which have been found to be deregulated in cancer cells. Therefore, homeostatic regulation of these important cellular signaling pathways by isoflavones could be useful for the activation of cell death signaling, which could result in the induction of apoptosis of both pre-cancerous and/or cancerous cells without affecting normal cells. In this article, we have attempted to summarize the current state-of-our-knowledge regarding the induction of cancer cell death pathways by isoflavones, which is believed to be mediated through the regulation of multiple cellular signaling pathways. The knowledge gained from this article will provide a comprehensive view on the molecular mechanism(s) by which soy isoflavones may exert their effects on the prevention of tumor progression and/or treatment of human malignancies, which would also aid in stimulating further in-depth mechanistic research and foster the initiation of novel clinical trials.
大豆异黄酮被记录为广泛归类为“天然剂”的膳食营养素，在降低亚洲国家激素相关癌症的发病率方面发挥着重要作用，并且已显示出在体外和体内抑制癌症发展和进展的作用，提示大豆异黄酮对癌症具有预防或治疗活性。新出现的实验证据表明，异黄酮可以通过调节多种细胞信号通路来诱导癌细胞死亡，包括 Akt、NF-κB、MAPK、Wnt、雄激素受体 (AR)、p53 和 Notch 信号通路，所有这些信号通路都在癌细胞中被发现失调。因此，异黄酮对这些重要细胞信号通路的动态平衡调节可能有助于激活细胞死亡信号，从而导致癌前和/或癌细胞的凋亡诱导，而不影响正常细胞。在本文中，我们试图总结目前关于异黄酮诱导癌细胞死亡途径的知识状态，据信这是通过调节多种细胞信号通路介导的。从本文中获得的知识将提供关于大豆异黄酮可能对预防肿瘤进展和/或治疗人类恶性肿瘤发挥作用的分子机制的全面了解，这也将有助于激发进一步的深入机制研究并促进新的临床试验的启动。
