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Review
. 2021 Oct 21;19(11):594.
doi: 10.3390/md19110594.

Halophilic Carotenoids and Breast Cancer: From Salt Marshes to Biomedicine

Micaela Giani  1   2 , Yoel Genaro Montoyo-Pujol  3 , Gloria Peiró  4 , Rosa María Martínez-Espinosa  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Halophilic Carotenoids and Breast Cancer: From Salt Marshes to Biomedicine

Micaela Giani et al. Mar Drugs. .

Abstract

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women worldwide. Over the years, oxidative stress has been linked to the onset and progression of cancer. In addition to the classical histological classification, breast carcinomas are classified into phenotypes according to hormone receptors (estrogen receptor-RE-/progesterone receptor-PR) and growth factor receptor (human epidermal growth factor receptor-HER2) expression. Luminal tumors (ER/PR-positive/HER2-negative) are present in older patients with a better outcome. However, patients with HER2-positive or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (ER/PR/HER2-negative) subtypes still represent highly aggressive behavior, metastasis, poor prognosis, and drug resistance. Therefore, new alternative therapies have become an urgent clinical need. In recent years, anticancer agents based on natural products have been receiving huge interest. In particular, carotenoids are natural compounds present in fruits and vegetables, but algae, bacteria, and archaea also produce them. The antioxidant properties of carotenoids have been studied during the last years due to their potential in preventing and treating multiple diseases, including cancer. Although the effect of carotenoids on breast cancer during in vitro and in vivo studies is promising, clinical trials are still inconclusive. The haloarchaeal carotenoid bacterioruberin holds great promise to the future of biomedicine due to its particular structure, and antioxidant activity. However, much work remains to be performed to draw firm conclusions. This review summarizes the current knowledge on pre-clinical and clinical analysis on the use of carotenoids as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents in breast cancer, highlighting the most recent results regarding the use of bacterioruberin from haloarchaea.

Keywords: antioxidant; bacterioruberin; breast cancer; carotenoids; oxidative stress; pro-oxidant.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Breast cancer cell lines. (A) T47-D and (B) MCF-7 cell lines are representative of luminal A (ER/PR+) phenotypes. (C) BT-474 cell line represents the Luminal B/HER2+ tumors. (D) SK-BR-3 cell line is characterized by the lack of ER and PR expression but it overexpresses the HER2/c-erb-2 gene, thus representing HER2-enriched subtype. (E) MDA-MB-468 cell line belongs to the triple negative/Basal-like (ER/PR and HER2 negative) phenotype. (F) MDA-MB-231 cell line constitutes the triple negative/Claudin-low subtype. (Image credit: Yoel Genaro Montoyo-Pujol). Scale bars of 100 µm are included in each micrograph.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Examples of chemical 2D structures of carotenoids: (A) a carotenoid: cis-β,β-carotene (CID: 5927317) and (B) a xanthophyll: all-trans-lutein (CID: 6433159). The oxygen group is highlighted in red. Chemical 2D structures obtained from PubChem (NIH).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Biological properties of carotenoids. Although they are mainly known by their antioxidant activity, carotenoids can exert various effects on cells.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Major differences in cancer and normal cells metabolism. Over a certain ROS threshold, antioxidants present a pro-oxidant activity that leads to the apoptosis of malignant cells. Hence, its potential as chemotherapeutic agent. The antioxidant activity acts as a chemopreventive under homeostatic levels of ROS in normal cells.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Chemical structure of the haloarchaeal carotenoid bacterioruberin.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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