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Taurine and Its Anticancer Functions: In Vivo and In Vitro Study

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Taurine 12

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1370))

Abstract

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is a natural amino acid that is found widely in all mammalian tissues. Several studies have demonstrated that taurine has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and hypoglycemic effects. Recently, taurine not only mitigates the side effects of chemotherapy in cancer but also possesses antitumor properties, including inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis in certain cancers by differential regulating proapoptotic and antiapoptotic proteins. Antitumor studies of taurine are still in their infancy, and the mechanism of its antitumor effect is not fully understood. In this regard, it is worthwhile to study the antitumor mechanism of taurine, which may provide clues to develop new synthetic therapeutic molecules. In this mini review, we summarize the main effects of taurine that have shown suppressing actions in the initiation and progression of cancers. The underlying molecular mechanism also suggested that taurine can be a potential clinical application in tumor therapy. In addition, with the in-depth study of different biological functions of taurine, we found that many systemic diseases are associated with taurine. In this review, the research progress of taurine’s antitumor effect is briefly summarized including the in vivo and in vitro studies in our laboratory.

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Abbreviations

Akt:

Phosphorylated protein kinase B

AOM:

Azomethane

CDDP:

Cisplatin

COX-2:

Cyclooxygenase

CTX:

Cyclophosphamide

DOX:

Doxorubicin

FAS:

Fatty acid synthase

IFO:

Ifosfamide

MST1:

Human mammalian sterile 20-like kinases 1

PTEN:

Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome 10

PUMA:

p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis

QOL:

Quality of life

TauT:

Taurine transporter

YAP:

Caspase-3 and downregulated yes-associated protein

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Authors Ning Ma and Feng He have equally contributed to this chapter.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Health Science, Graduate School of Health Science, Suzuka University of Medical Science, Suzuka, Japan

    Ning Ma, Jun Kawanokuchi & Takenori Yamashita

  2. Institute of Oriental Medicine, Suzuka University of Medical Science, Suzuka, Mie, Japan

    Ning Ma, Jun Kawanokuchi & Guifeng Wang

  3. Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, China

    Feng He

Authors
  1. Ning Ma
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  2. Feng He
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  3. Jun Kawanokuchi
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  4. Guifeng Wang
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  5. Takenori Yamashita
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ning Ma .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Mobile, AL, USA

    Stephen W. Schaffer

  2. Department of Biology, College of Staten Island, New York, NY, USA

    Abdeslem El Idrissi

  3. Faculty of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Fukui Prefectural University, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui, Japan

    Shigeru Murakami

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Ma, N., He, F., Kawanokuchi, J., Wang, G., Yamashita, T. (2022). Taurine and Its Anticancer Functions: In Vivo and In Vitro Study. In: Schaffer, S.W., El Idrissi, A., Murakami, S. (eds) Taurine 12. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1370. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93337-1_11

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