Abstract
Since ancient times, natural products have been used intraditional medicine to prevent and treat various diseases, including cancer. Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is a natural amino acid that is expressed widely in all mammalian tissues. It is crucial for proper function of the central nervous system1, retinal neurons2, 3, and cardiac and skeletal muscle4, 5. Several studies have demonstrated that taurine has anti-inflammatory6, antioxidant7, and hypoglycemic8 effects. Recently, taurine not only mitigate the side-effects of taurine on the cancer chemotherapy, but also possesses anti-tumor properties and has been shown to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in certain cancers by differential regulating pro-apoptotic and antiapoptotic proteins9, 10. The anti-tumor study of taurine is still in its infancy, so the mechanism of its anti-tumor effect is not fully understood. In this regard, it is worthwhile to study the anti-tumor mechanism of taurine, which may provide clues for us 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 was also elucidated to provide evidence of the potential clinical application to
taurine in tumor therapy.
