Dietary guidelines universally advise adherence to plant-based diets. Plant-based foods confer considerable health benefits, partly attributable to their abundant micronutrient (e.g., polyphenol) ...content. Interest in polyphenols is largely focused on the contribution of their antioxidant activity to the prevention of various disorders, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Polyphenols are classified into groups, such as stilbenes, flavonoids, phenolic acids, lignans and others. Lignans, which possess a steroid-like chemical structure and are defined as phytoestrogens, are of particular interest to researchers. Traditionally, health benefits attributed to lignans have included a lowered risk of heart disease, menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis and breast cancer. However, the intake of naturally lignan-rich foods varies with the type of diet. Consequently, based on the latest humans' findings and gathered information on lignan-rich foods collected from Phenol Explorer database this review focuses on the potential health benefits attributable to the consumption of different diets containing naturally lignan-rich foods. Current evidence highlight the bioactive properties of lignans as human health-promoting molecules. Thus, dietary intake of lignan-rich foods could be a useful way to bolster the prevention of chronic illness, such as certain types of cancers and cardiovascular disease.
Over the past few years, interest in health research has increased, making improved health a global goal for 2030. The purpose of such research is to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing across ...individuals of all ages. It has been shown that nutrition plays a key role in the prevention of some chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. One of the aspects that characterises a healthy diet is a high intake of vegetables and fruits, as both are flavonoid-rich foods. Flavonoids are one of the main subclasses of dietary polyphenols and possess strong antioxidant activity and anti-carcinogenic properties. Moreover, some population-based studies have described a relationship between cancer risk and dietary flavonoid intake. In this context, the goal of this review was to provide an updated evaluation of the association between the risk of different types of cancers and dietary flavonoid intake. We analysed all relevant epidemiological studies from January 2008 to March 2019 using the PUBMED and Web of Science databases. In summary, this review concludes that dietary flavonoid intake is associated with a reduced risk of different types of cancer, such as gastric, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers.
Oleanolic acid, maslinic acid, uvaol, and erythrodiol are the main triterpenes present in olives, olive tree leaves, and virgin olive oil. Their concentration in virgin olive oil depends on the ...quality of the olive oil and the variety of the olive tree. These triterpenes are described to present different properties, such as antitumoral activity, cardioprotective activity, anti-inflammatory activity, and antioxidant protection. Olive oil triterpenes are a natural source of antioxidants that could be useful compounds for the prevention of multiple diseases related to cell oxidative damage. However, special attention has to be paid to the concentrations used, because higher concentration may lead to cytotoxic or biphasic effects. This work explores all of the bioactive properties so far described for the main triterpenes present in virgin olive oil.
Oleanolic acid (AO) and maslinic acid (MA) are constituents of the skins of different fruits, including olives and white or red grapes. Although both compounds are known to have beneficial properties ...against different types of cancers, thus far, there are no studies about their chemopreventive effects in human breast cancer. Thus, we sought to elucidate whether both compounds possess chemopreventive activity. Two cell lines of human breast cancer cells and one noncancerous human mammary epithelial cells were used to determine the effects of OA and MA. The results showed that OA inhibited the proliferation and increased the oxidative stress of highly invasive cells. Additionally, OA decreased oxidative stress and oxidative damage to the DNA in human mammary epithelial cells. These results suggest that OA could act as a chemopreventive agent in human breast cancer and could inhibit the proliferation of highly invasive breast cancer cells.
The Mediterranean diet is considered as the foremost dietary regimen and its adoption is associated with the prevention of degenerative diseases and an extended longevity. The preeminent features of ...the Mediterranean diet have been agreed upon and the consumption of olive oil stands out as the most peculiar one. Indeed, the use of olive oil as the nearly exclusive dietary fat is what mostly characterizes the Mediterranean area. Plenty of epidemiological studies have correlated that the consumption of olive oil was associated with better overall health. Indeed, extra virgin olive oil contains (poly)phenolic compounds that are being actively investigated for their purported biological and pharma-nutritional properties. On 18 and 19 May 2018, several experts convened in Jaen (Spain) to discuss the most recent research on the benefits of olive oil and its components. We reported a summary of that meeting (reviewing several topics related to olive oil, not limited to health) and concluded that substantial evidence is accruing to support the widespread opinion that extra virgin olive oil should, indeed, be the fat of choice when it comes to human health and sustainable agronomy.
Anti-inflammatory effects of virgin olive oil (VOO) have been described recently, along with its wound healing effect. One of the main minor compounds found in VOO is squalene (SQ), which also ...possesses preventive effects against skin damage and anti-inflammatory properties. The inflammatory response is involved in wound healing and manages the whole process by macrophages, among others, as the main innate cells with a critical role in the promotion and resolution of inflammation for tissue repair. Because of that, this work is claimed to describe the role that squalene exerts in the immunomodulation of M1 proinflammatory macrophages, which are the first cells implicate in recent injuries. Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were analysed using TPH1 cell experimental model. SQ induced an increase in the synthesis of anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-10, IL-13, and IL-4, and a decrease in proinflammatory signals, such as TNF-α and NF-κB in M1 proinflammatory macrophages. Furthermore, SQ enhanced remodelling and repairing signals (TIMP-2) and recruitment signals of eosinophils and neutrophils, responsible for phagocytosis processes. These results suggest that SQ is able to promote wound healing by driving macrophage response in inflammation. Therefore, squalene could be useful at the resolution stage of wound healing.
Over recent years, several studies have related olive oil ingestion to a low incidence of several diseases, including breast cancer. Hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol are two of the major phenols present in ...virgin olive oils. Despite the fact that they have been linked to cancer prevention, there is no evidence that clarifies their effect in human breast tumor and non-tumor cells. In the present work, we present hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol's effects in human breast cell lines. Our results show that hydroxytyrosol acts as a more efficient free radical scavenger than tyrosol, but both fail to affect cell proliferation rates, cell cycle profile or cell apoptosis in human mammary epithelial cells (MCF10A) or breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and MCF7). We found that hydroxytyrosol decreases the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in MCF10A cells but not in MCF7 or MDA-MB-231 cells while very high amounts of tyrosol is needed to decrease the ROS level in MCF10A cells. Interestingly, hydroxytyrosol prevents oxidative DNA damage in the three breast cell lines. Therefore, our data suggest that simple phenol hydroxytyrosol could contribute to a lower incidence of breast cancer in populations that consume virgin olive oil due to its antioxidant activity and its protection against oxidative DNA damage in mammary cells.
The present study aims to examine the effects of three different high-fat diet (HFD) on mice gut microbiota in order to analyse whether they create the microenvironmental conditions that either ...promote or prevent colorectal cancer (CRC). We evaluated colonic mucosa-associated microbiota in CD1 mice fed with HFD, based on 60% kcal from fat-containing coconut, sunflower or extra-virgin olive oil as the only source of fat. The main findings were as follows: (a) All HFD produced a decrease in the richness and diversity of the intestinal microbiota that was independent of mouse weight, (b) HFD switched
to
. In general, the results showed that both sunflower- and coconut-HFD generated a pro-inflammatory intestinal microenvironment. In brief, coconut-HFD decreased
and increased
spp. abundance. Sunflower-HFD reduced
and
, while enhancing
and
spp. abundance. In contrast, EVOO-HFD produced an anti-inflammatory microenvironment characterised by a decreased
,
,
and
spp. abundance. At the same time, it increased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and maintained the
population. To conclude, EVOO-HFD produced changes in the gut microbiota that are associated with the prevention of CRC, while coconut and sunflower-HFD caused changes associated with an increased risk of CRC.
Several studies relate Mediterranean diet and virgin olive oil (VOO) intake with lower risk of several chronic diseases, including breast cancer. Many of them described antitumor properties of ...isolated minor compounds present in VOO, but beneficial properties of VOO arise from the effects of all its compounds acting together. The aim of the present study was to test the antitumor effects of two minor compounds from VOO (hydroxytyrosol (HT) and squalene (SQ)) on highly metastatic human breast tumor cells (MDA-MB-231) when acting in combination. Both isolated compounds were previously analyzed without showing any antitumoral effect on highly invasive MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, but the present results show that HT at 100 µM, combined with different concentrations of SQ, could exert antitumor effects. When they are combined, HT and SQ are able to inhibit cell proliferation, promoting apoptosis and DNA damage in metastatic breast cancer cells. Therefore, our results suggest that the health-promoting properties of VOO may be due, at least in part, to the combined action of these two minor compounds.
Until now, very little has been known about the antioxidant capacity of squalene and its effect on human breast tumourigenesis. In the present work, we investigated squalene’s scavenging properties ...and its effect on cell proliferation, cell cycle profile, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and oxidative DNA damage, using human breast cell lines. Our results showed that squalene neither possesses scavenging activity nor significantly alters cell proliferation rates, the cell cycle profile or cell apoptosis in human mammary epithelial cells (MCF10A), minimally invasive (MDA-MB-231) breast cancer cells, and highly invasive (MCF7) breast cancer cells. However, we found that squalene did exert the following effects on MCF10A epithelial cells in a dose-dependent manner: (a) it decreased intracellular ROS level, (b) it prevented H
2O
2-induced oxidative injury, and (c) it protected against oxidative DNA damage. Interestingly, squalene did not exert these effects on MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cells. Therefore, our data suggest that squalene, found in high amounts in virgin olive oils, could be partially responsible for the lower incidence of breast cancer in populations that consume the Mediterranean diet due to its protective activity against oxidative DNA damage in normal mammary cells.
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