Plant polyphenolics as anti-invasive cancer agents

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Pharmacology
• Drug Discovery

Background:

• Cancer invasion and metastasis are leading causes of mortality.
• Developing effective anti-invasive agents is a significant research challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a screening program for identifying anti-invasive compounds.
• To explore structure-activity relationships and predict novel anti-invasive agents.
• To investigate the bioavailability and microbial metabolism of plant polyphenolics.

Main Methods:

• Organotypic confronting cultures of human cancer cells and normal tissue in 3D.
• Artificial neural network analysis of quantitative structural descriptors for structure-activity relationships.
• Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME) and human trials for polyphenol metabolism.

Main Results:

• Identified diverse anti-invasive compounds, including plant alkaloids, polyphenolics (e.g., (+)-catechin, xanthohumol), and synthetic derivatives.
• Established a system for predicting and designing efficient anti-invasive molecules.
• Initiated studies on the gastrointestinal bioavailability of plant polyphenolics.

Conclusions:

• The developed screening system effectively identifies diverse anti-invasive compounds.
• Computational and metabolic studies are advancing the design of novel anti-cancer agents.
• The research aims to predict, synthesize, and apply molecules with optimal anti-metastatic activity in vivo.