Bioactive Food Components and Cancer-Specific Metabonomic Profiles

Figure 2

Fatty acid synthase as a metabonomic target for bioactive food components in cancer cells. Tumor cells exhibit the increased activity of FAS, which converts citrate-originated acetyl-CoA to fatty acids, mainly palmitate. The citrate is generated in mitochondria and, instead of further oxidation, is exported to cytosol as citrate. Upon exit, citrate forms acetyl CoA and is converted to fatty acids in cytosol, which is suppressed by a variety of dietary components, including tea catechin, DHA in fish oil, β-glucan in barley and mushrooms, resveratrol in red grapes, the vegetable flavonoid luteolin, and CLA in milk. FAS: fatty acid synthase; CoA: coenzyme A; PUFA: polyunsaturated fatty acid; DHA: docosahexaenoic acid; CLA: conjugated linoleic acid.