Section 4 Pharmacology

**245**

cell shape [4].

**Chapter 12**

**Abstract**

polyphenols

**1. Introduction**

Pharmacology Evaluation of

Regulate Cervical Cancer Cells

*Mauricio Salinas-Santander, Patricia Alvarez-Ortiz,* 

*Alejandro Zugasti-Cruz, Ricardo Rangel-Zertuche,* 

tive compounds affect the signalling pathways.

*Juan Alberto-Ascacio Valdes, Raul Rodriguez-Herrera,* 

*Victor de Jesus Suarez Valencia and Antonio Morlett-Chavez*

Cancer has been a public health problem that has gained a lot of death. However, in spite of the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer, women follow the struggle versus this disease. Also, those patients suffer from limited efficacy and specificity, undesirable effects, drug resistance, and a high cost of treatments. Currently, several studies have demonstrated the efficiency of natural products, called bioactive compounds, against cervical cancer cell lines. Bioactive compounds, including polyphenols and phenolic acids or flavonoids, etc., have antioxidant and pro-oxidant properties. These compounds are efficacy and show high specificity because probably they act as anti-oxidant and pro-oxidant. The prooxidant activity obstructs growth factors related to different signalling pathways that trigger cancer. Although, usually this kind of compounds helps for dispatching the apoptosis in cervical cancer cell. The aim of this chapter is reviewing how bioac-

**Keywords:** HeLa, cervical cancer, bioactive compounds, signalling pathway,

Cancer is a term for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and can invade nearby tissues. Typically, cells in healthy tissues only share if they receive growth stimulatory signals known as growth factors, those that together with the cytokines regulate the progression of the cell cycle [1]. The progressive transformation of normal cells into malignant derivatives implies the accumulation of some genetic changes, which can be carried in the germ line, by the development of somatic mutation throughout the life of the individual, or by the incorporation of viruses, which eventually produce alterations in the cell cycle and DNA repair mechanisms [2, 3]. That triggers several oncogenic signalling pathways, leading to a series of drastic phenotypic and biochemical changes in the cell. These alterations refer to various areas, such as growth factor signalling, cell-cell adhesion, gene expression, motility or

Bioactive Compounds that
