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Wenner et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:33 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2020.73 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

Role of autophagic response induced by major
phytochemicals in cancer prevention and treatment

Cole Wenner , Ryan Stewart , Abigail McCabe , Jason Pepe, John Oberlin, Adam VanWert, Ajay
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#
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Bommareddy
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nesbitt School of Pharmacy, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766, USA.
# Equal author contribution.
Correspondence to: Prof. Ajay Bommareddy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nesbitt School of Pharmacy, Wilkes
University, 84 W South Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766, USA. E-mail: ajay.bommareddy@wilkes.edu

How to cite this article: Wenner C, Stewart R, McCabe A, Pepe J, Oberlin J, VanWert A, Bommareddy A. Role of autophagic
response induced by major phytochemicals in cancer prevention and treatment. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:33.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2020.73

Received: 14 Jul 2020 First Decision: 10 Aug 2020 Revised: 21 Aug 2020 Accepted: 27 Aug 2020 Published: 17 Sep 2020
Academic Editor: Sanjay Gupta Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Phytochemicals derived from dietary sources and natural products have gained significant attention in
the scientific community due to their ability to modulate various pharmacological and biological activities.
Understanding the molecular mechanisms by which natural products protect against various diseases including
cancer will provide the basis for both clinical use and further chemical modification to develop targeted therapy.
Autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved self-digestion process that employs lysosomal-mediated enzymatic
degradation has a functional role in a wide range of pathological disorders, and has attracted oncology scientists
over the past two decades. Studies employing natural products have shown that induction of autophagy may be
either cytoprotective or cytotoxic governed by different molecular pathways. In this review, we summarize four
major phytochemicals namely phenethyl isothiocyanate, capsaicin, withaferin A, genistein and their association
with autophagy in cancer chemoprevention. We also discuss ideas for further investigation essential to
understanding their mechanisms, which will guide their clinical applications for cancer prevention and treatment.

Keywords: Cancer, autophagy, capsaicin, phenethyl isothiocyanate, genistein, withaferin A

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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