Balance of beneficial and deleterious health effects of quinones: a case study of the chemical properties of genistein and estrone quinones.

ABSTRACT: Substances containing a phenolic moiety are often metabolized to quinones whose high reactivity makes them difficult to study. Some of these precursors have clear health benefits, and some quinones themselves are used in cancer therapy, whereas others are deleterious. For example, dietary intake of phytoestrogen, genistein (Gen), seems to play a preventive role in breast cancer (BC) whereas prolonged exposure to chemically similar mammalian estrogens is clearly associated with elevated incidence of BC. Although both can be metabolized to reactive quinones, the catechol estrogen quinones (CEQs) modify DNA by redox cycling and/or depurination via a Michael addition. Here, we report an investigation of the chemical reactivity of Gen and estrone quinones to determine the chemical differences o

SUBMITTER: Zhang Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2631626 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature