Adaptive cellular stress pathways as therapeutic targets of dietary phytochemicals: focus on the nervous system.

ABSTRACT: During the past 5 decades, it has been widely promulgated that the chemicals in plants that are good for health act as direct scavengers of free radicals. Here we review evidence that favors a different hypothesis for the health benefits of plant consumption, namely, that some phytochemicals exert disease-preventive and therapeutic actions by engaging one or more adaptive cellular response pathways in cells. The evolutionary basis for the latter mechanism is grounded in the fact that plants produce natural antifeedant/noxious chemicals that discourage insects and other organisms from eating them. However, in the amounts typically consumed by humans, the phytochemicals activate one or more conserved adaptive cellular stress response pathways and thereby enhance the ability of cells to resis

SUBMITTER: Lee J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4081729 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature