Khan Aqsa, Khan Asifa, Khan Mohammad Aasif, Malik Zoya, Massey Sheersh, Parveen Rabea, Mustafa Saad, Shamsi Anas, Husain Syed A
Department of Bioscience, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi, India.
Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas Health Science Centre at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States.
Front Pharmacol. 2024 Mar 26;14:1273993. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1273993. eCollection 2023.
For centuries, plants have been serving as sources of potential therapeutic agents. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in investigating the effects of plant-derived compounds on epigenetic processes, a novel and captivating Frontier in the field of epigenetics research. Epigenetic changes encompass modifications to DNA, histones, and microRNAs that can influence gene expression. Aberrant epigenetic changes can perturb key cellular processes, including cell cycle control, intercellular communication, DNA repair, inflammation, stress response, and apoptosis. Such disruptions can contribute to cancer development by altering the expression of genes involved in tumorigenesis. However, these modifications are reversible, offering a unique avenue for therapeutic intervention. Plant secondary compounds, including terpenes, phenolics, terpenoids, and sulfur-containing compounds are widely found in grains, vegetables, spices, fruits, and medicinal plants. Numerous plant-derived compounds have demonstrated the potential to target these abnormal epigenetic modifications, including apigenin (histone acetylation), berberine (DNA methylation), curcumin (histone acetylation and epi-miRs), genistein (histone acetylation and DNA methylation), lycopene (epi-miRs), quercetin (DNA methylation and epi-miRs), This comprehensive review highlights these abnormal epigenetic alterations and discusses the promising efficacy of plant-derived compounds in mitigating these deleterious epigenetic signatures in human cancer. Furthermore, it addresses ongoing clinical investigations to evaluate the therapeutic potential of these phytocompounds in cancer treatment, along with their limitations and challenges.
几个世纪以来，植物一直是潜在治疗剂的来源。近年来，人们对研究植物来源化合物对表观遗传过程的影响越来越感兴趣，这是表观遗传学研究领域一个新颖且引人入胜的前沿领域。表观遗传变化包括对DNA、组蛋白和微小RNA的修饰，这些修饰会影响基因表达。异常的表观遗传变化会扰乱关键的细胞过程，包括细胞周期控制、细胞间通讯、DNA修复、炎症、应激反应和细胞凋亡。这种破坏可通过改变参与肿瘤发生的基因表达而促进癌症发展。然而，这些修饰是可逆的，为治疗干预提供了一条独特途径。植物次生化合物，包括萜类、酚类、萜类化合物和含硫化合物，广泛存在于谷物、蔬菜、香料、水果和药用植物中。许多植物来源的化合物已显示出靶向这些异常表观遗传修饰的潜力，包括芹菜素（组蛋白乙酰化）、黄连素（DNA甲基化）、姜黄素（组蛋白乙酰化和表观微小RNA）、染料木黄酮（组蛋白乙酰化和DNA甲基化）、番茄红素（表观微小RNA）、槲皮素（DNA甲基化和表观微小RNA）。这篇综述强调了这些异常的表观遗传改变，并讨论了植物来源化合物在减轻人类癌症中这些有害表观遗传特征方面的潜在疗效。此外提出了正在进行的临床研究，以评估这些植物化合物在癌症治疗中的治疗潜力，以及它们的局限性和挑战。
