Chemopreventive activity of sulforaphane

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. Carcinogenesis is a multistep process induced by genetic and epigenetic changes that disrupt pathways controlling cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, and senescence. In this context, many bioactive dietary compounds from vegetables and fruits have been demonstrated to be effective in cancer prevention and intervention. Over the years, sulforaphane (SFN), found in cruciferous vegetables, has been shown to have chemopreventive activity in vitro and in vivo. SFN protects cells from environmental carcinogens and also induces growth arrest and/or apoptosis in various cancer cells. In this review, we will discuss several potential mechanisms of the chemopreventive activity of SFN, including regulation of Phase I and Phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes, cell cycle arrest, and induction of apoptosis, especially via regulation of signaling pathways such as Nrf2-Keap1 and NF-κB. Recent studies suggest that SFN can also affect the epigenetic control of key genes and greatly influence the initiation and progression of cancer. This research may provide a basis for the clinical use of SFN for cancer chemoprevention and enable us to design preventive strategies for cancer management, reduce cancer development and recurrence, and thus improve patient survival.

Sulforaphane alters the acidification of the yeast vacuole

“…Studies undertaken during the past three decades have reported that the ITCs in cruciferous vegetables primarily responsible for their chemopreventive effects is the ITC called sulforaphane (SFN; 1-isothiocyanato-4-(methylsulfinyl)butane) [5,6]. Numerous experiments from a diversity of laboratories have shown that SFN can defend healthy cells against chemical and radiation-induced carcinogenesis and can inhibit the proliferation, migration, and survival of tumor cells [7,8].…”

Sulforaphane displays the growth inhibition, cytotoxicity and enhancement of retinoic acid-induced superoxide-generating activity in human monoblastic U937 cells

“…In recent times, sulforaphane attracted as an effective carcinogenesis prophylactic drug (Zhang et al, 1992;Tortorella et al, 2015). Moreover, in human being, sulforaphane displays the multiple interesting biological functions: such as anti-cancer effects (Li et al, 2011;Amin and Shankar, 2015;Dandawate et al, 2016;Leone et al, 2017;Jiang et al, 2018;Sita et al, 2018), antioxidant functions (Negrette-Guzman et al, 2013), anti-Helicobacter pylori activity (Yanaka, 2017), photo aging prevention (Sikdar et al, 2016), prevention of obesity (Martins et al, 2018), and general health benefits (Vanduchova et al, 2019). On the other hand, although numerous reports concerning to the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic properities of solid tumors are available, there is little information on the properities of sulforaphane in leukemia cells (Choi et al, 2008;Fimognari et al, 2008;Suppipat and Lacorazza, 2014;Fimognari et al, 2014;Shih et al, 2016;Shang et al, 2017;Brown et al, 2017;Koolivand et al, 2018).…”

Anti‐inflammatory and antiviral roles of hydrogen sulfide: Rationale for considering H2S donors in COVID‐19 therapy

“…Presently, a large number of natural and synthetic compounds have been recognized as effective H 2 S donors (Keyaerts et al, 2004;Sardu et al, 2020), and some of them are in clinical trials for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases (SG-1002 for heart failure) (Polhemus et al, 2015) and cancer disease (sulforaphane [SFN]) (Jiang et al, 2018).…”