MicroRNAs, diet and cancer chemoprevention

A growing body of clinical and epidemiological evidence suggests that diet is one of the most important modifiable determinants for risk of developing cancer and contributes to differences in cancer incidence among various populations. Experimental evidence supports the role of dietary components as chemopreventive agents in various cancers. Dietary factors potentially influence fundamental cellularprocesses involved in carcinogenesis; including apoptosis, cell-cycle control, angiogenesis, inflammation and DNA repair. Since microRNAs (miRNA) have emerged as critical gene/protein regulators that control basic cellular processes, there is much interest in determining the effect of dietary agents on modulation of miRNAs and their cognate targets in cancer. It has been proposed that dietary modulation of miRNA expression may contribute to the cancer-protective effects of dietary components. During the last few years, a plethora of studies have examined the effect of dietary agents on miRNAs and their targets in the context of cancer biology which suggest that dietary factors play an important role in carcinogenesis via modulation of miRNAs. In this chapter, we will summarize findings from these studies and will discuss their potential utility for cancer chemoprevention and therapeutics.