Flavonoids Promote Cell Migration in Nontumorigenic Colon Epithelial Cells Differing in Apc Genotype: Implications of Matrix Metalloproteinase Activity

Bioactivity of hamamelitannin, flavokawain A, and triacetyl resveratrol as natural compounds: Molecular docking study, anti‐colon cancer and anti‐Alzheimer potentials

In this study, we worked on anticolon cancer effects and anti-Alzheimer's disease with molecular docking studies. Hamamelitannin, flavokawain A, and triacetyl resveratrol compounds showed good inhibitory activities on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) enzymes. The inhibition effects of flavokawain A, hamamelitannin, and triacetyl resveratrol on AChE and BuChE enzymes were determined spectrophotometrically conforming to Ellman. IC₅₀ values of these enzymes were ranging between 0.95 ± 0.12 and 93.27 ± 8.14 nM for AChE and 5.71 ± 0.77 and 52.10 ± 8.41 nM for BuChE. The inhibitory activities of some chemical compounds such as flavokawain A, hamamelitannin, and triacetyl resveratrol were assessed by performing the molecular docking study in the presence of AChE and BuChE. Also, the features of the ligand-enzyme complex had value of -7.722 kcal/mol for flavokawain A against AChE and -5.530 kcal/mol against BuChE. The molecular docking calculations indicated the probable interactions and their characteristics at an atomic level. Due to the outcomes gained from docking, the affinity of the chemical compounds to the enzymes was considerable. In vitro cell viabilities of flavokawain A, hamamelitannin, and triacetyl resveratrol with various concentrations on SW620, DLD-1, HT29, HCT8, and HCT116 were investigated by MTT assay with Doxorubicin as the control compound.

Natural flavonoids for the prevention of colon cancer: A comprehensive review of preclinical and clinical studies

Flavonoids comprise a group of natural polyphenols consisting of more than 5,000 subtypes mostly existing in fruits and vegetables. Flavonoids consumption could potentially attenuate the incidence and recurrence risk of colorectal cancers through their antiperoxidative, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, these compounds regulate the mitochondrial function, balance the bacterial flora and promote the apoptosis process in cancerous cells. However, some previous data failed to show the effectiveness of flavonoids in reducing the risk of colorectal cancer. In this study, we have reviewed the efficacy of different flavonoids subtypes on the risk of colon cancer and molecular mechanisms involved in this process in both clinical and animal studies. In addition, we tried to elucidate the potential synergy between these compounds and current colorectal cancer treatments.

Downregulation of NEDD9 by apigenin suppresses migration, invasion, and metastasis of colorectal cancer cells

Apigenin is a natural flavonoid which possesses multiple anti-cancer properties such as anti-proliferation, anti-inflammation, and anti-metastasis in many types of cancers including colorectal cancer. Neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated 9 (NEDD9) is a multi-domain scaffolding protein of the Cas family which has been shown to correlate with cancer metastasis and progression. The present study investigates the role of NEDD9 in apigenin-inhibited cell migration, invasion, and metastasis of colorectal adenocarcinoma DLD1 and SW480 cells. The results show that knockdown of NEDD9 inhibited cell migration, invasion, and metastasis and that overexpression of NEDD9 promoted cell migration and invasion of DLD1 cells and SW4890 cells. Apigenin treatment attenuated NEDD9 expression at protein level, resulting in reduced phosphorylations of FAK, Src, and Akt, leading to inhibition on cell migration, invasion, and metastasis of both DLD1 and SW480 cells. The present study has demonstrated that apigenin inhibits cell migration, invasion, and metastasis through NEDD9/Src/Akt cascade in colorectal cancer cells. NEDD9 may function as a biomarker for evaluation of cancer aggressiveness and for selection of therapeutic drugs against cancer progression.

Flavonoids promoting HaCaT migration: II. Molecular mechanism of 4',6,7-trimethoxyisoflavone via NOX2 activation

Flavonoids are major active ingredients in plants and are considered components of food that provide medical or health benefits. They have diversified structures and have effects on human health, including wound healing induction. More than a hundred flavonoids were screened for HaCaT keratinocytes cellular migration measurements and the relationships between their structural properties and the effects promoting cellular migration were examined. Here, among flavonoids used in the previous structure-activity relationship calculations, 4',6,7-trimethoxyisoflavone (TMF) was one of the compounds showing the best activity, so that its molecular mechanism of the wound healing effect on HaCaT keratinocytes was investigated in more detail. Our data revealed that TMF increased the wound healing rate, but not the proliferation rate, in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment of keratinocytes with TMF influenced signaling pathways, affecting the phosphorylation of AKT and ERK in a time-dependent manner. TMF also induced the cell-cell adhesion protein E-cadherin, which is essential for promoting collective cell migration. Furthermore, the TMF treatment group also showed higher ROS and NOX2 transcriptional and protein levels. Correlating with matrix metalloproteinase induction by TMF, levels of extracellular matrix proteins such as collagens I and III were significantly lower in the treatment group. To confirm that the effects of TMF occur through the NOX2 pathway, we co-treated cells with TMF plus an NADPH inhibitor (DPI) or a ROS scavenger (NAC). Western blotting revealed that DPI and NAC attenuated the effect of TMF, suggesting that TMF induces ROS through the NOX2 pathway and regulates keratinocyte migration. In summary, TMF promotes wound healing through NOX2 induction, which leads to collective migration and MMP activation.

Apigenin and its impact on gastrointestinal cancers

Apigenin (4',5,7-trihydroxyflavone, 5,7-dihydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one) is a flavonoid found in many fruits, vegetables, and herbs, the most abundant sources being the leafy herb parsley and dried flowers of chamomile. Present in dietary sources as a glycoside, it is cleaved in the gastrointestinal lumen to be absorbed and distributed as apigenin itself. For this reason, the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract is exposed to higher concentrations of apigenin than tissues at other locations. This would also be true for epithelial cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. We consider the evidence for actions of apigenin that might hinder the ability of gastrointestinal cancers to progress and spread. Apigenin has been shown to inhibit cell growth, sensitize cancer cells to elimination by apoptosis, and hinder the development of blood vessels to serve the growing tumor. It also has actions that alter the relationship of the cancer cells with their microenvironment. Apigenin is able to reduce cancer cell glucose uptake, inhibit remodeling of the extracellular matrix, inhibit cell adhesion molecules that participate in cancer progression, and oppose chemokine signaling pathways that direct the course of metastasis into other locations. As such, apigenin may provide some additional benefit beyond existing drugs in slowing the emergence of metastatic disease.

Nutrition and human health from a sex-gender perspective

Nutrition exerts a life-long impact on human health, and the interaction between nutrition and health has been known for centuries. The recent literature has suggested that nutrition could differently influence the health of male and female individuals. Until the last decade of the 20th century, research on women has been neglected, and the results obtained in men have been directly translated to women in both the medicine and nutrition fields. Consequently, most modern guidelines are based on studies predominantly conducted on men. However, there are many sex-gender differences that are the result of multifactorial inputs, including gene repertoires, sex steroid hormones, and environmental factors (e.g., food components). The effects of these different inputs in male and female physiology will be different in different periods of ontogenetic development as well as during pregnancy and the ovarian cycle in females, which are also age dependent. As a result, different strategies have evolved to maintain male and female body homeostasis, which, in turn, implies that there are important differences in the bioavailability, metabolism, distribution, and elimination of foods and beverages in males and females. This article will review some of these differences underlying the impact of food components on the risk of developing diseases from a sex-gender perspective.

Regulation of cellular signals from nutritional molecules: a specific role for phytochemicals, beyond antioxidant activity

Phytochemicals (PhC) are a ubiquitous class of plant secondary metabolites. A "recommended" human diet should warrant a high proportion of energy from fruits and vegetables, therefore providing, among other factors, a huge intake of PhC, in general considered "health promoting" by virtue of their antioxidant activity and positive modulation, either directly or indirectly, of the cellular and tissue redox balance. Diet acts through multiple pathways and the association between the consumption of specific food items and the risk of degenerative diseases is extremely complex. Recent literature suggests that molecules having a chemical structure compatible with a putative antioxidant capacity can actually "perform" activities and roles independent of such capacity, interacting with cellular functions at different levels, such as affecting enzyme activities, binding to membrane or nuclear receptors as either an elective ligand or a ligand mimic. Inductive or signaling effects may occur at concentrations much lower than that required for effective antioxidant activity. Therefore, the "antioxidant hypothesis" is to be considered in some cases an intellectual "shortcut" possibly biasing the real understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of various classes of food items. In the past few years, many exciting new indications elucidating the mechanisms of polyphenols have been published. Here, we summarize the current knowledge of the mechanisms by which specific molecules of nutritional interest, and in particular polyphenols, play a role in cellular response and in preventing pathologies. In particular, their direct interaction with nuclear receptors and their ability to modulate the activity of key enzymes involved in cell signaling and antioxidant responses are presented and discussed.

Naringenin is a novel inhibitor of Dictyostelium cell proliferation and cell migration

Naringenin is a flavanone compound that alters critical cellular processes such as cell multiplication, glucose uptake, and mitochondrial activity. In this study, we used the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, as a model system for examining the cellular processes and signaling pathways affected by naringenin. We found that naringenin inhibited Dictyostelium cell division in a dose-dependent manner (IC(50) approximately 20 microM). Assays of Dictyostelium chemotaxis and multicellular development revealed that naringenin possesses a previously unrecognized ability to suppress amoeboid cell motility. We also found that naringenin, which is known to inhibit phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity, had no apparent effect on phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate synthesis in live Dictyostelium cells; suggesting that this compound suppresses cell growth and migration via alternative signaling pathways. In another context, the discoveries described here highlight the value of using the Dictyostelium model system for identifying and characterizing the mechanisms by which naringenin, and related compounds, exert their effects on eukaryotic cells.

Stage matters: choosing relevant model systems to address hypotheses in diet and cancer chemoprevention research

Clinical evidence reveals that the efficacy of dietary factors to prevent cancer is probably stage-dependent. The ability to demonstrate stage-specific effects of dietary compounds on normal, preneoplastic and malignant cell models may provide insights into puzzling clinical results from cancer chemoprevention trials. The relevance of these models to the field of cancer prevention is immense and will undoubtedly facilitate the ability to discover which dietary factors are most effective at preventing cancer and which, if any, specific steps in neoplastic transformation render cells refractory to the effects of dietary compounds. There are illustrative examples where exposure of high-risk individuals to dietary chemopreventive agents increases rather than decreases cancer risk. While geneticists and clinical oncologists acknowledge the morphological continuum along which tumors develop in specific tissues, tumor cells, rather than normal and preneoplastic cells, continue to be the primary in vitro reductionist tool employed to elucidate mechanisms underlying disease progression and to investigate the potential utility of dietary as well as other chemopreventive agents. Currently, there are few relevant model systems to study the progression of neoplastic transformation, especially in epithelial cells. We highlight examples of model systems isolated from prostate, breast, endometrial and intestinal tissue, with special emphasis on a specific set of non-tumorigenic, conditionally immortal cell lines derived from C57/BL6 mice [YAMC (Young Adult Mouse Colon cells; Apc+/+) cells and IMCE (Immorto-Min Colonic Epithelium cells; ApcMin/+) cells] that have yielded important information on early events in colorectal neoplasia development. These cell lines are an illustrative example of how researchers can examine stage-dependent effects of specific dietary components on carcinogenesis. The utilization of cell culture systems modeling early, middle and late stages of tumorigenesis will yield important insights into mechanisms by which dietary components impact cancer progression.