Background: Chemoprevention is a promising new approach to cancer prevention. Since the beginning of chemoprevention studies, short-term in vitro models used in the study of carcinogenesis have been applied in the identification of antitumor-promoting agents.
Materials and methods: The lignans threo-4,4'-dihydroxy-3-methoxylignan, (-)-dihydroguaiaretic acid, 4'-hydroxy-3,3',4-trimethoxylignan, 3,3',4,4'-tetramethoxylignan, 4,4'-diacetyl-3,3'-dimethoxylignan, talaumidin, heliobuphthalmin, (-)-dihydro-cubebin, and hinokinin were evaluated for their ability to inhibit human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) IE-antigen expression in lung cancer cells (A549).
Results: Most of the evaluated compounds reduced IE-antigen expression of HCMV, the best result being obtained with 4,4'-dihydroxy-3-methoxylignan. However, a dose-dependent significant increase of IE-antigen expression was found for the derivative (-)-dihydrocubebin.
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that some of these lignans might be valuable as potential cancer chemopreventive agents.