Current trends and perspectives in nutrition and cancer prevention

There is an increasing evidence that dietary phytochemicals may play important roles as chemopreventive or chemotherapeutic agents in prevention of many diseases, including tumors. The purpose of this study was to examine antimutagenic effects and effect on the immune response of representative series of substances which commonly occur in human diet. Using the Ames bacterial mutagenicity test and in vivo chemiluminescence test, we investigated antigenotoxic and immunomodulatory effects of juices and vegetable homogenates (carrot + cauliflower, cauliflower, red cabbage, broccoli, onion, garlic) on the genotoxicity of AFB1 and pyrolysates of aminoacids. Using the Ames test and in vivo micronucleus, the chemiluminescence test, the blastic transformation test and the comet assay we examined antimutagenic effects of chemically identified chemoprotective substances in the pure form (resveratrol, diallylsulphide, phenethyl isothiocyanate, ellagic acid, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein and curcumin) on mutagenicity induced by three reference mutagens: aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), 2-amino-3-metylimidazo[4,5,-f] chinolin (IQ) and N-nitroso- N-metylurea (MNU) and effect of phytochemicals on the immunosuppression caused by these mutagens. All complete vegetable homogenates and substances of plant origin tested, showed a clear antimutagenic and immunomodulatory activities on mutagenicity and immunosuppression induced by reference mutagens. Only in the Ames test the effect of some phytochemicals against direct mutagen MNU was lower compared to indirect mutagens AFB1 and IQ. Similarly, resveratrol and epigallocatechin gallate had no inhibitory effect on mutagenicity MNU in the Ames test.