Dietary molecules and experimental evidence of epigenetic influence in cancer chemoprevention: An insight

Targeting oncogenic transcription factors in skin malignancies: An update on cancer stemness and therapeutic outcomes

The skin is the largest organ of the human body and prone to various diseases, including cancer; thus, provides the first line of defense against exogenous biological and non-biological agents. Skin cancer, a complex and heterogenic process, with steep incidence rate often metastasizes due to poor understanding of the underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis and clinical challenges. Indeed, accumulating evidence indicates that deregulation of transcription factors (TFs) due to genetic, epigenetic and signaling distortions plays essential role in the development of cutaneous malignancies and therapeutic challenges including cancer stemness features and reprogramming. This review highlights the recent developments exploring underlying mechanisms how deregulated TFs (e.g., NF-κB, AP-1, STAT etc.,) orchestrates cutaneous onco-pathogenesis, reprogramming, stemness and poor clinical outcomes. Along this line, bioactive drugs, and their derivatives from natural and or synthetic origin has gained attention due to their multitargeting potential, potentially safer and effective therapeutic outcome for human malignancies. We also discussed therapeutic importance of targeting aberrantly expressed TFs in skin cancers with bioactive natural products and or synthetic agents.

Diet-derived small molecules (nutraceuticals) inhibit cellular proliferation by interfering with key oncogenic pathways: an overview of experimental evidence in cancer chemoprevention

Discouraging statistics of cancer disease has projected an increase in the global cancer burden from 19.3 to 28.4 million incidences annually within the next two decades. Currently, there has been a revival of interest in nutraceuticals with evidence of pharmacological properties against human diseases including cancer. Diet is an integral part of lifestyle, and it has been proposed that an estimated one-third of human cancers can be prevented through appropriate lifestyle modification including dietary habits; hence, it is considered significant to explore the pharmacological benefits of these agents, which are easily accessible and have higher safety index. Accordingly, an impressive embodiment of evidence supports the concept that the dietary factors are critical modulators to prevent, retard, block, or reverse carcinogenesis. Such an action reflects the ability of these molecules to interfere with multitude of pathways to subdue and neutralize several oncogenic factors and thereby keep a restraint on neoplastic transformations. This review provides a series of experimental evidence based on the current literature to highlight the translational potential of nutraceuticals for the prevention of the disease through consumption of enriched diets and its efficacious management by means of novel interventions. Specifically, this review provides the current understanding of the chemopreventive pharmacology of nutraceuticals such as cucurbitacins, morin, fisetin, curcumin, luteolin and garcinol toward their potential as anticancer agents.