Targeting β-Catenin Signaling by Natural Products for Cancer Prevention and Therapy

The mutations and deregulation of Wnt signaling pathway occur commonly in human cancer and cause the aberrant activation of beta-catenin and beta-catenin-dependent transcription, thus contributing to cancer development and progression. Therefore, beta-catenin has been demonstrated as a promising target for cancer prevention and therapy. Many natural products have been characterized as inhibitors of the beta-catenin signaling through down-regulating beta-catenin expression, modulating its phosphorylation, promoting its ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation, inhibiting its nuclear translocation, or other molecular mechanisms. These natural product inhibitors have shown preventive and therapeutic efficacy in various cancer modelsin vitroandin vivo. In the present review, we comprehensively discuss the natural product beta-catenin inhibitors, theirin vitroandin vivoanticancer activities, and underlying molecular mechanisms. We also discuss the current beta-catenin-targeting strategies and other potential strategies that may be examined for identifying new beta-catenin inhibitors as cancer preventive and therapeutic drugs.