Genistein Derivatization – From a Dietary Supplement to a Pharmaceutical Agent

Abstract

Many soy supplements in the market focus on estrogen and antioxidant properties of isoflavonoid, genistein. Due to the structural similarity to estrogen and binding to estrogen receptor, genistein is often referred to as a phyto-hormone or a dietary estrogen from soy. Target applications of isoflavone-enriched whole soy concentrates include natural hormonal replacement therapy and women’s health products (Knight & Eden, 1996; Messina, 1995). However, beneficial effect of genistein on human health extends to the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular events, diabetes, and incidence of inflammatory diseases and management of some metabolic diseases (Birt et al., 2001, Kurzer, 2002; Rimbach et al., 2008; Wegrzyn et al., 2010). The view of genistein as a safe and healthy food supplement is not entirely clear, however. Although most studies show no risk of high consumption of soy-based products for human growth, development or reproduction, there are some data urging caution in genistein overdose. Genistein is implicated as a possible cause of infertility and liver disease in some animal species. Consumption of genistein-rich food and supplements during pregnancy have been suggested to increase the risk of infant leukemias (Hengstler et al., 2002). In addition, experimental data showing stimulatory effect of genistein on proliferation of some breast cancer cells lines raise the problem of safety of genistein supplementation in women with diagnosed breast cancer (Lavigne et al., 2008). Despite the controversies about safety and benefits of soy food supplementation, the pleiotropic activity of genistein, resulting from its interaction with numerous molecular targets, along with the possibility of chemical derivatization of a molecule place genistein among leading compounds for drug development. This chapter deals with two main issues: (1) describes the main molecular targets affected by genistein and indicates alterations in signaling pathways, revealed by global gene profiling analyses, and (2) delineates the relevant examples of genistein derivatives synthesized with aim to obtain compounds exhibiting improved pharmacological activity, increased affinity