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Topic: Natural Products and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Natural products and hepatocellular carcinoma
Natural products and hepatocellular carcinoma

Mosaad A. Abdel-Wahhab

Food Toxicology and Contaminants Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo 12622, Egypt

Address for correspondence:
Prof. Mosaad A. Abdel-Wahhab, Food Toxicology and Contaminants Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo 12622, Egypt.
E-mail: mosaad_abdelwahhab@yahoo.com
Received: 14-06-2015, Accepted: 09-07-2015

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem, interest concerning the health benefits of a diet rich in NPs.
[12]
with more than 500,000 cases diagnosed annually. It is also NPs can act as chemoprotective agents against common liver
an important cause of human mortality in the world. The diseases, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, fatty liver
incidence of HCC is rising due to the widespread of hepatitis and diseases, and gallstones. [1]
alcoholism, which may be caused by infection, injury, exposure
to drugs or toxic compounds, autoimmunity, or genetic defect In general, NPs play a key role in drug discovery and are also
that leads to the deposition of harmful substances. [1] a prolific source of novel lead compounds or pharmacophores
for medicinal chemistry. Although naturally active substances
In the broadest sense, natural products (NPs) are chemical are usually good lead compounds, most of them can hardly
compounds or substances produced by a living organism satisfy the demands for druggability. Hence, these structural
found in nature. [2,3] Consequently, NPs can be extracted from phenotypes have to be modified and optimized to overcome
animals, plants, microbes, and marine organisms. [4,5] NPs existing deficiencies and shortcomings. [13]
can be considered as a coin with two sides, which have to
be considered in the application in modern or alternative Although HCC is always hard to treat, this special issue aims
medicine. Some NPs have beneficial effects while some to gather updated progress in this important area and shed
others have toxic effects. For example, mycotoxins and the light on the possibility to introduce a new drug based
some other microbial toxins are carcinogenic, and the on the benefit of NPs.
International Agency for Research on Cancer classified
[6]
several mycotoxins as hepatocarcinogenic. Exposure to Financial support and sponsorship
some mycotoxins resulted in liver cancer, [7-10] especially Nil.
aflatoxin B , which is a mutagenic natural compound that
1
contaminates many food sources in some parts of Africa and Confl ict of interest
Asia and is recognized as hepatocarcinogens in humans and There is no conflict of interest.
many animal species. [7,11]
REFERENCES
The use of herbal medicines can be traced back several
thousand years ago in ancient China, ancient Egypt and 1. Ling CQ, Chiu JH, Oh B, Cho WC. Natural products for liver diseases:
ancient Roma. Recent research pointed out an increasing basic, clinical, and translational research. Evid Based Complement
Alternat Med 2012;2012:794343.
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DOI:
10.4103/2394-5079.161626 How to cite this article: Abdel-Wahhab MA. Natural products and
hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatoma Res 2015;1:107-8.

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