Brown Algae Phlorotannins: A Marine Alternative to Break the Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Cancer Network

Abstract

According to the WHO, cancer was responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018, making it the second global leading cause of death. The main risk factors that lead to the development of this disease include poor behavioral and dietary habits, such as tobacco use, alcohol use and lack of fruit and vegetable intake, or physical inactivity. In turn, it is well known that polyphenols are deeply implicated with the lower rates of cancer in populations that consume high levels of plant derived foods. In this field, phlorotannins have been under the spotlight in recent years since they have shown exceptional bioactive properties, with great interest for application in food and pharmaceutical industries. Among their multiple bioactive properties, phlorotannins have revealed the capacity to interfere with several biochemical mechanisms that regulate oxidative stress, inflammation and tumorigenesis, which are central aspects in the pathogenesis of cancer. This versatility and ability to act either directly or indirectly at different stages and mechanisms of cancer growth make these compounds highly appealing for the development of new therapeutical strategies to address this world scourge. The present manuscript revises relevant studies focusing the effects of phlorotannins to counteract the oxidative stress–inflammation network, emphasizing their potential for application in cancer prevention and/or treatment.

Marginal Impact of Brown Seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum and Fucus vesiculosus Extract on Metabolic and Inflammatory Response in Overweight and Obese Prediabetic Subjects

“…Phlorotannins are proposed as the main compounds in marine brown seaweeds associated with this effect. Indeed, as reported by Catarino et al [ 41 ], phlorotannins can inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and interfering with transcriptional regulation. Furthermore, in the present study, variations in Il-6 were strongly and positively correlated with glycemia in the fasting state ( r = 50, p = 0.001).…”

Antitumor Activity of Fucus vesiculosus-Derived Phlorotannins through Activation of Apoptotic Signals in Gastric and Colorectal Tumor Cell Lines

“…Indeed, cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase was described for numerous tumor cell lines treated with fucoidans extracted from different brown seaweed species [ 25 ], while fucoxanthin was shown to induce not only cell cycles arrest at the G0/G1 phase, but also at the G2/M phase in multiple tumor cell lines [ 26 ]. Although less explored, interesting results have also been reported for phlorotannins that have also been tested on several different tumor cell lines [ 27 ]. This is the case of dieckol isolated from E. cava , which was shown to induce the cell cycle arrest of both MCF-7 and SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells at the G2/M phase [ 28 ], while the addition of phloroglucinol to HT-29 cells over 24 h caused a dose-dependent increase of the cell counts at the G0/G1 phase [ 29 ].…”

Natural Antioxidant Evaluation: A Review of Detection Methods

“…GPx, along with SOD and CAT, are the most important antioxidant enzymes and are usually used as biomarkers to indicate the production of ROS [ 185 , 186 ]. The activity of GPx can be accessed with a kinetic method first described by Strauss et al [ 187 ], which involves two steps: (i) the neutralization of H 2 O 2 by GPx in the presence of GSH and (ii) recycling of the resulting GSSG by GR in the presence of NADPH; the consumption of NADPH is then used as a proxy for GPx activity.…”