Nutrigenetics and colon cancer

摘要

Colon cancer is the third most common type of cancer and the secondleading cause of cancer-related death in the western world. Many epidemio-logical studies have shown that lifestyle and intake of various food compo-nents influence the colon carcinogenesis. Novel concepts such as nutrigeno-mics and nutrigenetics which study the interaction between diet and geneswith common goal to optimize health through personalization of diet, pro-vide approaches to elucidate the complex relationship between nutrientsand genetic polymorphisms involved in various diseases like colon cancer.Nutrigenetics of colon cancer is based on correlation between folate metab-olism and polymorphisms in the genes encoding crucial enzymes in folatemetabolism pathway. The folate pathway influences abberant pyrimidineand purine synthesis as well as the global DNA hypomethylation andhypermethylation of tumor supressor genes such as APC, hMLH1, p16 andE-cadherin in colon cancer. In addition, polymorphisms in the MTHFR,TYMS, MTR, MTRR, RFC, DHFR and other genes involved in the fo-late pathway have been shown to influence colon carcinogenesis. The cen-tral role of the folate pathway in the cell has made it a target for a variety ofchemotherapeutics. Polymorphisms in the genes encoding crucial enzymes inthe folate pathway might have an important role in the pharmacogeneticsand nutrigenetics of colon cancer.