Resveratrol in cancer management: where are we and where we go from here?

Abstract

Resveratrol has been shown to afford protection against several diseases. A plethora of studies have suggested that resveratrol imparts cancer chemopreventive and therapeutic responses. However, an important issue with the future development of resveratrol for disease management is its low bioavailability due to its rapid metabolism in mammals. Therefore, efforts are needed to enhance its bioavailability in humans. In this direction, some possible scenarios include enhancing the bioavailability of resveratrol by novel mechanism-based combinations with agents that can inhibit the in vivo metabolism of resveratrol, nanoparticle-mediated delivery, use of naturally occurring or synthetic analogues of resveratrol, and use of conjugated metabolites of resveratrol, though these need to be carefully evaluated as they may need to be deconjugated from resveratrol at the target organ to elicit a biological response. Thus, concerted and multidisciplinary efforts are needed to take resveratrol to the next level, that is, from the "bench-to-bedside."