Phytosterols and Triterpenoids for Prevention and Treatment of Metabolic-related Liver Diseases and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Liver ailments are among the leading causes of death; they originate from viral infections, chronic alcoholism, and autoimmune illnesses, which may chronically be precursors of cirrhosis; furthermore, metabolic syndrome may worsen those hepatopathies or cause Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) that may advance to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Cirrhosis is the late-stage liver disease and can proceed to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Pharmacological treatment options for liver diseases, cirrhosis, and HCC, are limited, expensive, and not wholly effective. The use of medicinal herbs and functional foods is growing around the world as natural resources of bioactive compounds that would set the basis for the development of new drugs. Review and Conclusion: Plant and food-derived sterols and triterpenoids (TTP) possess antioxidant, metabolic-regulating, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory activities, as well as they are recognized as anticancer agents, suggesting their application strongly as an alternative therapy in some chronic diseases. Thus, it is interesting to review current reports about them as hepatoprotective agents, but also because they structurally resemble cholesterol, sexual hormones, corticosteroids and bile acids due to the presence of the steroid nucleus, so they all can share pharmacological properties through activating nuclear and membrane receptors. Therefore, sterols and TTP appear as a feasible option for the prevention and treatment of chronic metabolic-related liver diseases, cirrhosis, and HCC.

Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Seed Oil: A Functional Food from the Winemaking Industry

“…Some data also indicate antitumor effects of tocotrienols from grape seeds [ 128 ]. More recently, dietary plant phytosterol supplementation has been considered in anticancer experiments [ 143 , 144 , 145 ].…”

Traditional Chinese medicine: An important source for discovering candidate agents against hepatic fibrosis

“…Terpenoids and their derivatives are the compounds with isoprene units as their basic structures widely existed in nature. Terpenoids have antioxidant, metabolic, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory activities ( Sánchez-Crisóstomo et al, 2019 ), and have promising potentials for the treatment of some hepatic chronic diseases. For example, cucurbitacin B attenuates HF by inhibiting oxidative stress, inflammation, and STAT3 signaling pathways ( Sallam et al, 2018 ).…”

Changes in the serum metabolomic profiles of subjects with NAFLD in response to n-3 PUFAs and phytosterol ester: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

“…[17][18][19] Moreover, plant-and food-derived sterols possess antioxidant, metabolism-regulating, and anti-inflammatory activities. Therefore, sterols appear to be a feasible option for combination with n-3 PUFAs, 20 which may be applied for the prevention and treatment of chronic metabolic-related liver diseases and cirrhosis.…”