Cancer Science & Therapy

Resveratrol suppresses prostate cancer progression in transgenic mice

Abstract

Hong Cai

Resveratrol (trans-3,4’,5-trihydroxystilbene) is a naturally occurring
antifungal found in a variety of foods including the skin of red grapes and
peanuts. Since the seminal report that resveratrol could inhibit multiple
stages of carcinogenesis, it has been the subject of extensive preclinical
investigations for the treatment and prevention of numerous pathologies
including cancer, cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s disease, insulin resistance,
and diabetes . Attempts to translate these findings to humans have increased
in recent years but there are still fundamental gaps in our understanding of
the pharmacokinetic pharmacodynamic relations and how plasma/target tissue
concentrations correlate with clinical efficacy or beneficial effects on health
maintenance . Such information is needed to inform the choice of optimum
dose and formulation requirements, and to enhance understanding of the key
modes of action for resveratrol in each pathology it is also particularly important
given the notoriously low systemic bioavailability of parent resveratrol due to
its rapid metabolism, which, if not taken into consideration, would affect its
clinical utility.