Plant Flavonoids Against Colorectal Cancer and Mechanisms of Action

Worldwide colorectal cancer (CRC) was considered to be a primary health disease that leads to high morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries, which can be controlled with novel chemopreventive agents. In the past few decades, chemoprevention of several cancers by the use of natural flavonoids has become an attractive strategy. Bioactive polyphenols with a low molecular weight in the dietary supplements determine the fate of a cell by interacting at the molecular and cellular level. In the past few decades, several preclinical/clinical studies perceptibly figured the chemopreventive and cytotoxic effect of bioactive flavonoids on cancers. Flavonoids have been frequently considered as enzyme inhibitors and ligands of receptors involved in the signal transduction. There has been increasing interest in unrevealing the beneficial and chemoprotective potential of flavonoids that had encouraged in novel drug discovery for CRC. An elaborated molecular mechanism of phytocompounds against cancer treatment overlies with direct interactions between various types of genes and enzymes. It is well known that anticancer efficacy would include apoptosis, antiproliferation, antioxidation, cell cycle arrest, and reversal of multidrug resistance mechanism. This chapter highlights the cumulative research findings of plant-derived bioactive flavonoids against CRC treatment and provides novel insights into its molecular regulation and mechanism with protein interaction in anticancer drug discovery.