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Anticancer bioactive phytochemicals screening from medicinal-edible homologous materials in Caenorhabditis elegans
Jiahui Wen1, Xinyue Yang1, Yufan Liu1
1College of Marine Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
Background:
The rising cancer burden tends to point toward what appears to be an apparently urgent need for safe and cost-effective therapeutics. Medicine-food homologous materials appear to suggest what seems to be a unique reservoir of anticancer phytochemicals, yet effective in vivo screening platforms seem to predominantly remain somewhat limited.
Purpose:
This review highlights Caenorhabditis elegans as the alternative system to discover anticancer bioactive compounds in medicinal-edible sources.
Study Design:
Oncogenic signaling pathways that are conserved, cancer model construction strategies and uses of C. elegans in bioactive phytochemical discovery and cancer detection are overviewed.
Methods:
Cancer-related pathways including Wnt/β-catenin, RAS/MAPK, and Notch were examined. Genetic tools such as CRISPR, RNAi, and microinjection were reviewed for establishing tumor-like phenotypes. Screening approaches for phytochemicals from herbal and dietary resources, along with nematode olfactory assays for volatile cancer biomarkers, were assessed.
Results:
C. elegans models effectively recapitulate human oncogenic processes and enable high-throughput evaluation of dietary and medicinal compounds. Numerous phytochemicals, such as resveratrol and disulfiram-derived agents, have shown tumor-suppressive effects in mutant strains. Additionally, odor-based detection assays exhibited high sensitivity in distinguishing cancer-related volatile compounds.
Conclusion:
Despite anatomical and physiological limitations, C. elegans provides a powerful, low-cost, and translational platform for anticancer bioactive screening from medicine-food homologous materials. This strategy accelerates discovery of nutritional therapeutics and supports early cancer detection innovations.
Insights
Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) offers a cost-effective platform for discovering anticancer compounds from medicinal-edible sources. This model system aids in screening phytochemicals and developing early cancer detection methods.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Genetics
- Pharmacology
Background:
- The increasing global cancer burden necessitates novel, safe, and affordable therapeutic strategies.
- Medicinal-edible plants represent a rich source of anticancer phytochemicals, but effective in vivo screening methods are limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a versatile model for identifying anticancer compounds from medicinal-edible sources.
- To explore C. elegans' potential in cancer research, including drug discovery and early detection.
Main Methods:
- Overview of conserved oncogenic signaling pathways (Wnt/β-catenin, RAS/MAPK, Notch) in C. elegans.
- Review of genetic tools (CRISPR, RNAi) for creating cancer models and screening phytochemicals.
- Assessment of nematode olfactory assays for detecting cancer-related volatile biomarkers.
Main Results:
- C. elegans models successfully mimic human oncogenic processes, enabling high-throughput screening of compounds.
- Phytochemicals like resveratrol demonstrated tumor-suppressive effects in C. elegans cancer models.
- Odor-based assays showed high sensitivity for identifying cancer biomarkers.
Conclusions:
- C. elegans provides a powerful, low-cost, and translational platform for screening anticancer agents from food-medicine sources.
- This approach accelerates the discovery of nutritional therapeutics and supports innovations in early cancer detection.
