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Natural Compounds: An Adjuvant Strategy in Cancer Management, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Current Issues in Molecular Biology (ISSN 1467-3045). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioorganic Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 816

Editors


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Guest Editor
Department for the Promotion of Human Science and Quality of Life, San Raffaele Roma University, Via di Val Cannuta, 247, 00166 Rome, Italy
Interests: dysregulated metabolic pathways; cancer; inflammation; epigenetic modifications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest estimates, in 2022, there were 20 million new cancer diagnoses and 9.7 million cancer deaths globally. The therapeutic strategy against cancer depends on several factors, including the type and stage of cancer, a patient’s general health status and their tolerance to chemotherapy treatment (if needed). In fact, adverse drug reactions often force doctors to reduce the dose of treatment. As a consequence, patients risk being undertreated, resulting in worse oncologic outcomes. Phytochemicals (as well as phenolics, flavonoids, and carotenoids) are dietary bioactive compounds present in fruits and vegetables known to act, under certain conditions, as pro-oxidant and cytotoxic agents in certain tissues, including tumor cells. Due to their properties, dietary phytochemicals are used to supplement conventional chemotherapy drugs to increase anti-tumor efficacy, or they can be modified to synthesize novel anti-cancer formulations less cytotoxic to normal tissue cells and more effective against cancer. In this Special Issue, we invite authors to submit original research and review articles investigating different metabolic changes in cancer cells due to the administration of natural compounds and their derivatives. Also, we highly appreciate all contributions focused on the identification of new therapeutic approaches using vegetable bioactive compounds to improve positive outcomes in cancer patient treatment.

You can read the first volume of our Special Issue by clicking the following link:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/cimb/special_issues/178129T323

Dr. Monia Cecati
Dr. Arianna Vignini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Current Issues in Molecular Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cancer
  • phytochemicals
  • bioactive compounds
  • anti-tumor
  • cancer treatment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

35 pages, 1438 KB  
Review
Natural Products Targeting Acetylation in Bladder Cancer: Mechanistic Basis, Therapeutic Potential, and Future Perspectives
by Wei Li, Da Liu, Qinzhamusu Yin, Yiwen Geng, Yang Liu and Yong Wang
Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 2026, 48(5), 489; https://doi.org/10.3390/cimb48050489 - 8 May 2026
Viewed by 583
Abstract
Bladder cancer remains a major clinical challenge because of its high recurrence rate, marked molecular heterogeneity, frequent progression, and limited durability of current therapeutic strategies. Increasing evidence indicates that acetylation, as a reversible and druggable epigenetic modification, plays a central role in bladder [...] Read more.
Bladder cancer remains a major clinical challenge because of its high recurrence rate, marked molecular heterogeneity, frequent progression, and limited durability of current therapeutic strategies. Increasing evidence indicates that acetylation, as a reversible and druggable epigenetic modification, plays a central role in bladder cancer biology by linking chromatin remodeling to transcriptional regulation, DNA damage repair, metabolic adaptation, and immune modulation. Both histone and non-histone acetylation are frequently dysregulated in bladder cancer, and these alterations contribute to multiple malignant phenotypes, including sustained proliferation, defective cell-cycle control, apoptosis evasion, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, metastatic progression, and therapeutic resistance. In this review, we summarize the mechanistic basis of acetylation imbalance in bladder cancer, with particular emphasis on the roles of histone acetyltransferases, histone deacetylases, sirtuins, and acetylation-associated metabolic regulators. We further discuss the emerging evidence that natural products can modulate acetylation-related pathways in bladder cancer, mainly through targeting HDAC-dependent histone deacetylation and SIRT1-associated non-histone deacetylation. Representative compounds, including sulforaphane, erucin, puerarin, capsaicin, curcumin, trichostatin A, trichostatin C, and pinocembrin, highlight the potential of natural products to suppress tumor growth, promote apoptosis, impair migration, and enhance antitumor immunity through acetylation-related mechanisms. Beyond summarizing individual agents, the evidence was evaluated based on the integration of acetylation-related target engagement, acetylation remodeling, and bladder cancer-relevant phenotypic outcomes. The current evidence is heterogeneous. SFN/ECN, capsaicin, and pinocembrin offer the most convincing bladder cancer-specific support, whereas several other compounds remain limited by context-dependent effects, indirect pathway inference, or incomplete validation of the proposed acetylation mechanisms. These findings support an evidence-oriented translational framework that prioritizes natural products according to mechanistic robustness, bladder cancer specificity, and combination potential. Overall, acetylation-targeting natural products represent a promising but still evolving therapeutic strategy for bladder cancer, warranting further subtype-specific, mechanistically rigorous, and translationally oriented investigation. Full article
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