Search

Cancer incidence keeps increasing every year around the world and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Cancer has imposed a major burden on the human population, including the deterioration of physical and mental health as well as economic or financial loss among cancer patients. Conventional cancer treatments including chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy have improved the mortality rate. However, conventional treatments have many challenges; for example, drug resistance, side effects, and cancer recurrence. Chemoprevention is one of the promising interventions to reduce the burden of cancer together with cancer treatments and early detection. Pterostilbene is a natural chemopreventive compound with various pharmacological properties such as anti-oxidant, anti-proliferative, and anti-inflammatory properties. Moreover, pterostilbene, due to its potential chemopreventive effect on inducing apoptosis in eliminating the mutated cells or preventing the progression of premalignant cells to cancerous cells, should be explored as a chemopreventive agent. Hence, in the review, we discuss the role of pterostilbene as a chemopreventive agent against various types of cancer via its modulation of the apoptosis pathway at the molecular levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oleuropein is a form of phenolic compound which can be majorly found in the olive leaves. Previous studies have shown several biological functions of oleuropein against different cancer cells. Aim and Objectives: This research was designed to study the pre-initiation effect of oleuropein on the early skin tumour development using a mouse model. Material and Methods: Female Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice (n=6 per group) were divided into 2 groups (group 1 as a carcinogen control and group 2 as a vehicle control) and 1 treatment group (group 3: 10 mg/kg of oleuropein). Results: After 10 weeks, Group 3 showed delay in epidermal hyperplasia formation and a significant reduction (p<0.05) in the epidermal thickness as compared to Group 1. Data were also displayed a significant increase (p<0.05) in the apoptotic rate in Group 3 as compared to Group 1 and 2. For biochemical assays, the level of Malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly (p<0.05) decreased whilst the levels of Glutathione (GSH) and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) were significantly (p<0.05) increased in Group 3 as compared to Group 1. Conclusion: Our results indicate that pre-initiation treatment of oleuropein may prevent skin tumour development through its antioxidant and apoptotic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]