Anthocyanins/anthocyanidins and colorectal cancer: What is behind the scenes?

ABSTRACT

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cause of cancer death. Phytochemicals, especially anthocyanins/anthocyanidins (A/A), have gathered attention of the scientific community owing to their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cancer-inhibitory properties. In this review, we discussed the possible mechanisms whereby A/A exhibit intestinal anticarcinogenic characteristics. Anthocyanins/anthocyanidins inhibit the pro-inflammatory NF-κB pathway, attenuate Wnt signaling and suppress abnormal epithelial cell proliferation. In addition, A/A induce mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis and downregulate Akt/mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) pathway. Furthermore, activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) also contributes to the anti-carcinogenic effects of A/A. Finally, downregulation of metalloproteinases (MMPs) by A/A inhibits tumor invasion and metastasis. In conclusion, A/A exert their anti-tumor effects against colorectal carcinogenesis via multiple mechanisms, providing insights into the use of A/A as a natural chemopreventive intervention on major colorectal carcinogenesis.

KEYWORDS:

• Polyphenols
• anthocyanins
• anthocyanidins
• colorectal carcinogenesis
• chemopreventive intervention
• cancer prevention
• signaling pathway

Disclosures statement

de Sousa Moraes, Sun, Peluzio, and Zhu have no conflicts of interests.

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Min Du for his critical reading of this review. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding details

This work was partially supported by the Emerging Research Issues Internal Competitive Grant from the Agricultural Research Center at Washington State University, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, under grant 10A-3057-8640. De Sousa Moraes thanks the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brazil, for supporting his study at Washington State University, under the process number 99999.007346/2015-08.