Food & Biodynamic Chemistry Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-0845, Japan.
Food and Biotechnology Innovation Project, New Industry Creation Hatchery Center (NICHe), Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan.
Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Feb 6;19(2):478. doi: 10.3390/ijms19020478.
Telomerase is expressed in ~90% of human cancer cell lines and tumor specimens, whereas its enzymatic activity is not detectable in most human somatic cells, suggesting that telomerase represents a highly attractive target for selective cancer treatment. Accordingly, various classes of telomerase inhibitors have been screened and developed in recent years. We and other researchers have successfully found that some dietary compounds can modulate telomerase activity in cancer cells. Telomerase inhibitors derived from food are subdivided into two groups: one group directly blocks the enzymatic activity of telomerase (e.g., catechin and sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol), and the other downregulates the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of human telomerase, via signal transduction pathways (e.g., retinoic acid and tocotrienol). In contrast, a few dietary components, including genistein and glycated lipid, induce cellular telomerase activity in several types of cancer cells, suggesting that they may be involved in tumor progression. This review summarizes the current knowledge about the effects of dietary factors on telomerase regulation in cancer cells and discusses their molecular mechanisms of action.
端粒酶在~90%的人类癌细胞系和肿瘤标本中表达，而其酶活性在大多数人类体细胞中无法检测到，这表明端粒酶是选择性癌症治疗的一个极具吸引力的靶点。因此，近年来已经筛选和开发了各种类型的端粒酶抑制剂。我们和其他研究人员已经成功地发现，一些膳食化合物可以调节癌细胞中端粒酶的活性。源自食物的端粒酶抑制剂分为两类：一类直接阻断端粒酶的酶活性（例如，儿茶素和磺基奎诺糖二酰基甘油），另一类通过信号转导途径下调人端粒酶逆转录酶（hTERT）的表达，hTERT 是人端粒酶的催化亚基（例如，视黄酸和生育三烯酚）。相比之下，一些膳食成分，包括染料木黄酮和糖化脂质，在几种类型的癌细胞中诱导细胞端粒酶活性，这表明它们可能参与肿瘤的进展。这篇综述总结了关于膳食因素对癌细胞中端粒酶调节的影响的现有知识，并讨论了它们的作用机制。
