Lunasin: A promising polypeptide for the prevention and treatment of cancer

Abstract

Abstract. Strategies for the treatment of cancer remain unsatisfactory due to the poor understanding of the complicated underlying molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. A number of types of cancer exhibit a marked association with dietary habits and lifestyles. Therefore, the modulation of dietary habits or lifestyles may be an effective strategy for preventing the formation and progression of cancer. Proteins and polypeptides from soybean have been developed as healthcare products due to their marked activity in inhibiting the progression of cancer at various stages. Lunasin, containing 43 amino acid residues, is one such example of a soybean-derived polypeptide that has been demonstrated to exhibit marked anti-cancer activity. In the present review, studies of the underlying molecular mechanisms and potential advantages of lunasin in the prevention and treatment of cancer have been examined, to provide a theoretical reference for the development of natural product-based agents or healthcare products for the prevention and treatment of cancer. IntroductionCancer is well-known to be one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide (1). However, the therapy of various types of cancer remains unsatisfactory due to the poor understanding of the complicated underlying molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. A number of epidemiological studies have demonstrated that a number of types of cancer exhibit a marked association with dietary habits and lifestyles (2-4). A statistical study has demonstrated that ~3.07 million individuals in China were diagnosed with cancer in 2012, which accounts for 1/5 of the total number of patients with cancer worldwide (5). Furthermore, ~2.21 million patients succumbed to cancer in China, which is ~25% of the total mortality worldwide due to cancer (5). Epidemiological evidence has demonstrated that cancer in 35% of patients exhibits a marked association with lifestyle, particularly diet (2). Therefore, the adjustment of dietary habits and lifestyles may be an effective strategy to prevent carcinogenesis. Cancer cell-and tumor-bearing animal models have demonstrated that the consumption of foods containing natural compounds with anti-cancer activity is able to markedly reduce the risk of cancer, and increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to treatment (6). A number of phytochemicals, including resveratrol, quercetin and flavonoids, have been demonstrated to exhibit marked anti-cancer activity (7-9). Similarly, foodborne proteins and polypeptides have attracted attention due to their specific advantages as anti-cancer substances (10,11). Compared with certain small-molecule drugs, polypeptides exhibit characteristics of increased affinity, marked ability of specific targeting and decreased toxicity; furthermore, polypeptides exhibit increased permeability in tissues compared with protein-based drugs (12). Therefore, polypeptides have been recognized as potential natural anti-cancer substances for inhibiting the development and progression of cancer at different stages (13).Following ...

Structural-features of food-derived bioactive peptides with anti-inflammatory activity: A brief review

“…Thus, it might have a role in transcription regulation. A tri‐peptide, RGD (Arg‐Gly‐Asp; residues 32–34), within the lunasin peptide which is a cell‐adhesion module and promotes intracellular accessibility of lunasin by functioning as an extracellular matrix, whereas, a stretch of nine Asp residues are present at the C‐terminus involved in anti‐mitotic functions (Wan et al, ). However, in a study by Hernández‐Ledesma et al, it was reported that although lunasin is a long peptide, its complete primary sequence along with its resulting secondary and tertiary structures are required to exhibit the anti‐inflammatory properties.…”

Oral Administration of CardioAid and Lunasin Alleviates Liver Damage in a High-Fat Diet Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Model

“…Its chemical structure was previously described [19]. Lunasin was extensively studied for various indications [5,6,9,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28]. …”

Bioactive peptides from food fermentation: A comprehensive review of their sources, bioactivities, applications, and future development

“…Although residues one to 22 of lunasin have no known biological function, its residues 23 to 31 form a helical structure with structural homology to a conserved region of chromatin‐binding proteins (Galvez et al., 2001). The residues 32 to 34 of lunasin are a tripeptide (RGD) with cell adhesion motif and the remaining nine ASP residues at the C‐terminus that make up the whole lunasin peptide contribute to the antimitotic functions (Galvez et al., 2001; Wan et al., 2017). Noticeably, many peptides reported in the literature shown in Tables 1–6 (e.g., ALPQYLKTVYQHQK, FQQQYYPGLSN, and VLAEWKQKYEESQAELEGAQKEARS obtained from fermented milk, rice protein byproduct, and zebra blenny muscle proteins, respectively) contain a considerable amount of glutamine residues with hydrophobic and polar amino acids at the N‐ and C‐terminus, respectively.…”