Silymarin extracted from milk thistle consisting of flavonolignan silybin has shown chemopreventive and chemosensitizing activity against various cancers. The present review summarizes the current knowledge on the potential targets of silymarin against various cancers. Silymarin may play on the system of xenobiotics, metabolizing enzymes (phase I and phase II) to protect normal cells against various toxic molecules or to protect against deleterious effects of chemotherapeutic agents on normal cells. Furthermore, silymarin and its main bioactive compounds inhibit organic anion transporters (OAT) and ATP-binding cassettes (ABC) transporters, thus contributing to counteracting potential chemoresistance. Silymarin and its derivatives play a double role, namely, limiting the progression of cancer cells through different phases of the cycle—thus forcing them to evolve towards a process of cell death—and accumulating cancer cells in a phase of the cell cycle—thus making it possible to target a greater number of tumor cells with a specific anticancer agent. Silymarin exerts a chemopreventive effect by inducing intrinsic and extrinsic pathways and reactivating cell death pathways by modulation of the ratio of proapoptotic/antiapoptotic proteins and synergizing with agonists of death domains receptors. In summary, we highlight how silymarin may act as a chemopreventive agent and a chemosensitizer through multiple pathways.

Eye diseases are currently a major public health concern due to the growing number of cases resulting from both an aging of populations and exogenous factors linked to our lifestyles. Thus, many treatments including surgical pharmacological approaches have emerged, and special attention has been paid to prevention, where diet plays a preponderant role. Recently, potential antioxidants such as resveratrol have received much attention as potential tools against various ocular diseases. In this review, we focus on the mechanisms of resveratrol against ocular diseases, in particular age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and vitreoretinopathy. We analyze, in relation to the different steps of each disease, the resveratrol properties at multiple levels, such as cellular and molecular signaling as well as physiological effects. We show and discuss the relationship to reactive oxygen species, the regulation of inflammatory process, and how resveratrol can prevent ocular diseases through a potential epigenetic action by the activation of sirtuin-1. Lastly, various new forms of resveratrol delivery are emerging at the same time as some clinical trials are raising more questions about the future of resveratrol as a potential tool for prevention or in therapeutic strategies against ocular diseases. More preclinical studies are required to provide further insights into RSV’s potential adjuvant activity.

Wine has been popular worldwide for many centuries and currently remains an important component of our diet. Scientific interest in wine and its health effects has grown considerably since the 1990s with the emergence of the “French Paradox” concept, correlating moderate wine consumption, a characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, and low incidence of coronary heart diseases. Since then, the positive effects on health, health promotion, disease prevention, and disease prognosis of moderate wine consumption, in particular red wine, have been attributed to its polyphenolic compounds such as resveratrol, quercetin, and other flavonoids acting as antioxidants. Several epidemiological, in vivo and in vitro, studies have reported that moderate red wine or red wine polyphenolic extract consumption may be active in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, degenerative pathologies, and cancer. The aim of this review is to summarize the current findings about the effects of red wine polyphenols on cancer and to discuss how the polyphenolic composition of red wine may influence its chemopreventive properties.

Inflammation has been described as an initiator event of major diseases with significant impacts in terms of public health including in cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, eye diseases, age-related diseases, and the occurrence of cancers. A preventive action to reduce the key processes leading to inflammation could be an advantageous approach to reducing these associated pathologies. Many studies have reported the value of polyphenols such as resveratrol in counteracting pro-inflammatory cytokines. We have previously shown the potential of red wine extract (RWE) and the value of its qualitative and quantitative polyphenolic composition to prevent the carcinogenesis process. In this study, we addressed a new effect of RWE in inflammation through a modulation of IL-1β secretion and the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. NLRP3 inflammasome requires two signals, priming to increase the synthesis of NLRP3 and pro-IL-1β proteins and activation, which activates NLRP3. Inflammasome formation is triggered by a range of substances such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Using two different macrophages, one of which does not express the adaptor protein ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD), which is essential to form active inflammasome complexes that produce IL-1β, we show that RWE decreases IL-1 β secretion and gene expression whatever line is used. Moreover, this strong reduction of pro-inflammatory IL-1β is associated with a decrease of NLRP3 and, in J774A, ASC protein expression, which depends on the choice of activator ATP or nigericin.

In spite of chemotherapy and systematic screening for people at risk, the mortality rate of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains consistently high, with 600,000 deaths per year. This low success rate in the treatment of CRC results from many failures associated with high resistance and the risk of metastasis. Therefore, in response to these therapeutic failures, new strategies have been under development for several years aimed at increasing the effect of anticancer compounds and/or at reducing their secondary effects on normal cells, thus enabling the host to better withstand chemotherapy. This study highlights that xanthohumol (Xn) concentrations under the IC₅₀ values were able to induce apoptosis and to enhance the DNA-damage response (DDR). We demonstrate for the first time that Xn exerts its anticancer activity in models of colon cancer through activation of the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) pathway. Subsequently, the ability of Xn to restore DNA damage in CRC cells can sensitize them to anticancer agents such as SN38 (7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin) used in chemotherapy.

Obesity may not be consistently associated with metabolic disorders and mortality later in life, prompting exploration of the challenging concept of healthy obesity. Here, the consumption of a high-fat/high-sucrose (HF/HS) diet produces hyperglycaemia and hypercholesterolaemia, increases oxidative stress, increases endotoxaemia, expands adipose tissue (with enlarged adipocytes, enhanced macrophage infiltration and the accumulation of cholesterol and oxysterols), and reduces the median lifespan of obese mice. Despite the persistence of obesity, supplementation with a polyphenol-rich plant extract (PRPE) improves plasma lipid levels and endotoxaemia, prevents macrophage recruitment to adipose tissues, reduces adipose accumulation of cholesterol and cholesterol oxides, and extends the median lifespan. PRPE drives the normalization of the HF/HS-mediated functional enrichment of genes associated with immunity and inflammation (in particular the response to lipopolysaccharides). The long-term limitation of immune cell infiltration in adipose tissue by PRPE increases the lifespan through a mechanism independent of body weight and fat storage and constitutes the hallmark of a healthy adiposity trait.