Novel targets for detection of cancer and their modulation by chemopreventive natural compounds

Abstract

Cancer affects the lives of millions of people. Several signaling pathways have been proposed as therapeutic targets for cancer therapy, and many more continue to be validated. With the identification and validation of therapeutic targets comes the question of designing novel strategies to effectively counter such targets. Natural compounds from dietary sources form the basis of many ancient medicinal systems. They are pleiotropic i.e. they act on multiple targets, and, therefore, are often the first agents to be tested against a novel therapeutic target. This review article summarizes the knowledge so far on some actively pursued targets - Notch, CXCR4, Wnt and sonic hedgehog (shh) pathways, the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) as well as molecular markers such as uPA-uPAR, survivin, FoxM1, and the microRNAs. We have performed an extensive survey of literature to list modulation of these targets by natural agents such as curcumin, indole-3-carbinol (I3C), 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM), resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), genistein etc. We believe that this review will stimulate further research for elucidating and appreciating the value of these wonderful gifts from nature.