Cancer Biology Laboratory and DBT-AIST International Laboratory for Advanced Biomedicine (DAILAB), Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, 781039, India.
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
J Transl Med. 2018 Jan 25;16(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s12967-018-1381-2.
Extensive research within the last several decades has revealed that the major risk factors for most chronic diseases are infections, obesity, alcohol, tobacco, radiation, environmental pollutants, and diet. It is now well established that these factors induce chronic diseases through induction of inflammation. However, inflammation could be either acute or chronic. Acute inflammation persists for a short duration and is the host defense against infections and allergens, whereas the chronic inflammation persists for a long time and leads to many chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, respiratory diseases, etc. Numerous lines of evidence suggest that the aforementioned risk factors induced cancer through chronic inflammation. First, transcription factors NF-κB and STAT3 that regulate expression of inflammatory gene products, have been found to be constitutively active in most cancers; second, chronic inflammation such as pancreatitis, prostatitis, hepatitis etc. leads to cancers; third, activation of NF-κB and STAT3 leads to cancer cell proliferation, survival, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis; fourth, activation of NF-κB and STAT3 leads to resistance to chemotherapy and radiation, and hypoxia and acidic conditions activate these transcription factors. Therefore, targeting these pathways may provide opportunities for both prevention and treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases. We will discuss in this review the potential of various dietary agents such as spices and its components in the suppression of inflammatory pathways and their roles in the prevention and therapy of cancer and other chronic diseases. In fact, epidemiological studies do indicate that cancer incidence in countries such as India where spices are consumed daily is much lower (94/100,000) than those where spices are not consumed such as United States (318/100,000), suggesting the potential role of spices in cancer prevention.
近几十年来的广泛研究表明，大多数慢性疾病的主要危险因素是感染、肥胖、酒精、烟草、辐射、环境污染物和饮食。现在已经确定，这些因素通过诱导炎症引发慢性疾病。然而，炎症可以是急性的，也可以是慢性的。急性炎症持续时间短，是宿主对感染和过敏原的防御，而慢性炎症持续时间长，导致许多慢性疾病，包括癌症、心血管疾病、神经退行性疾病、呼吸道疾病等。大量证据表明，上述危险因素通过慢性炎症引发癌症。首先，调节炎症基因产物表达的转录因子 NF-κB 和 STAT3 在大多数癌症中被发现持续活跃；其次，胰腺炎、前列腺炎、肝炎等慢性炎症会导致癌症；第三，NF-κB 和 STAT3 的激活导致癌细胞增殖、存活、侵袭、血管生成和转移；第四，NF-κB 和 STAT3 的激活导致对化疗和放疗的耐药性，缺氧和酸性条件激活这些转录因子。因此，靶向这些途径可能为癌症和其他慢性疾病的预防和治疗提供机会。我们将在本综述中讨论各种膳食因子（如香料及其成分）在抑制炎症途径及其在癌症和其他慢性疾病的预防和治疗中的作用的潜力。事实上，流行病学研究表明，在印度等每天食用香料的国家，癌症发病率（94/10 万）远低于不食用香料的美国（318/10 万），这表明香料在癌症预防中的潜在作用。
