Curcumin and inflammatory bowel diseases: From in vitro studies to clinical trials.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) may result from mutations in genes encoding for innate immunity, which can lead to exacerbated inflammatory response. Although some mono-targeted treatments have developed in recent years, IBDs are caused through several pathway perturbations. Therefore, targeting all these pathways is difficult to be achieved by a single agent. Moreover, those mono-targeted therapies are usually expensive and may cause side-effects. These limitations highlight the significance of an available, inexpensive and multi-targeted dietary agents or natural compounds for the treatment and prevention of IBDs. Curcumin is a multifunctional phenolic compound that is known for its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. Over the past decades, mounting experimental investigations have revealed the therapeutic potential of curcumin against a broad spectrum of inflammatory diseases including IBDs. Furthermore, it has been reported that curcumin directly interacts with many signaling mediators implicated in the pathogenesis of IBDs. These preclinical findings have created a solid basis for the assessment of the efficacy of curcumin in clinical practice. In clinical trials, different dosages e.g., 550 mg /three times daily-1month, and 1 g /twice times daily-6month of curcumin were used for patients with IBDs. Taken together, these findings indicated that curcumin could be employed as a therapeutic candidate in the treatment of IBDs. Moreover, it seems that overcome to current limitations of curcumin i.e., poor oral bioavailability, and poor oral absorption with using nanotechnology and others, could improve the efficacy of curcumin both in pre-clinical and clinical studies.

An Update on the Effects of Probiotics on Gastrointestinal Cancers.

Because of their increasing prevalence, gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are regarded as an important global health challenge. Microorganisms residing in the human GI tract, termed gut microbiota, encompass a large number of living organisms. The role of the gut in the regulation of the gut-mediated immune responses, metabolism, absorption of micro- and macro-nutrients and essential vitamins, and short-chain fatty acid production, and resistance to pathogens has been extensively investigated. In the past few decades, it has been shown that microbiota imbalance is associated with the susceptibility to various chronic disorders, such as obesity, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, psychiatric disorders, and various types of cancer. Emerging evidence has shown that oral administration of various strains of probiotics can protect against cancer development. Furthermore, clinical investigations suggest that probiotic administration in cancer patients decreases the incidence of postoperative inflammation. The present review addresses the efficacy and underlying mechanisms of action of probiotics against GI cancers. The safety of the most commercial probiotic strains has been confirmed, and therefore these strains can be used as adjuvant or neo-adjuvant treatments for cancer prevention and improving the efficacy of therapeutic strategies. Nevertheless, well-designed clinical studies are still needed for a better understanding of the properties and mechanisms of action of probiotic strains in mitigating GI cancer development.

Quercetin and cancer: new insights into its therapeutic effects on ovarian cancer cells.

Ovarian cancer is known as a serious malignancy that affects women's reproductive tract and can considerably threat their health. A wide range of molecular mechanisms and genetic modifications have been involved in ovarian cancer pathogenesis making it difficult to develop effective therapeutic platforms. Hence, discovery and developing new therapeutic approaches are required. Medicinal plants, as a new source of drugs, could potentially be used alone or in combination with other medicines in the treatment of various cancers such as ovarian cancer. Among various natural compounds, quercetin has shown great anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. In vitro and in vivo experiments have revealed that quercetin possesses a cytotoxic impact on ovarian cancer cells. Despite obtaining good results both in vitro and in vivo, few clinical studies have assessed the anti-cancer effects of quercetin particularly in the ovarian cancer. Therefore, it seems that further clinical studies may introduce quercetin as therapeutic agent alone or in combination with other chemotherapy drugs to the clinical setting. Here, we not only summarize the anti-cancer effects of quercetin but also highlight the therapeutic effects of quercetin in the ovarian cancer.