Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers and major cause of death in women in the world. Emerging evidence underscores the value of dietary and non-dietary phytochemicals, including triterpenoids, in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. Oleanolic acid, an oleanane-type pentacyclic triterpenoid, is present in a large number of dietary and medicinal plants. Oleanolic acid and its derivatives exhibit several promising pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, cardioprotective, antipruritic, spasmolytic, antiallergic, antimicrobial and antiviral effects. Numerous studies indicate that oleanolic acid and other oleanane triterpenoids modulate multiple intracellular signaling pathways and exert chemopreventive and antitumor activities in various in vitro and in vivo model systems. A series of novel synthetic oleanane triterpenoids have been prepared by chemical modifications of oleanolic acid and some of these compounds are considered to be the most potent anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic triterpenoids. Accumulating studies provide extensive evidence that synthetic oleanane derivatives inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of various cancer cells in vitro and demonstrate cancer preventive or antitumor efficacy in animal models of blood, breast, colon, connective tissue, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate and skin cancer. This review critically examines the potential role of oleanolic acid, oleanane triterpenoids and related synthetic compounds in the chemoprevention and treatment of mammary neoplasia. Both in vitro and in vivo studies on these agents and related molecular mechanisms are presented. Several challenges and future directions of research to translate already available impressive preclinical knowledge to clinical practice of breast cancer prevention and therapy are also presented.

中文翻译：

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齐墩果烷三萜类化合物在乳腺癌的预防和治疗中的作用：当前证据和未来展望。

乳腺癌是世界上女性中最常被诊断出的癌症和主要死因之一。越来越多的证据强调了饮食和非饮食植物化学物质（包括三萜类化合物）在预防和治疗乳腺癌中的价值。齐墩果酸，一种齐墩果烷型五环三萜，存在于许多饮食和药用植物中。齐墩果酸及其衍生物表现出几种有希望的药理活性，包括抗氧化剂，抗炎，保肝，心脏保护，止痒，解痉，抗过敏，抗微生物和抗病毒作用。大量研究表明，齐墩果酸和其他齐墩果三萜类化合物可调节多种细胞内信号传导途径，并在各种体外和体内模型系统中发挥化学预防和抗肿瘤活性。通过对齐墩果酸进行化学修饰制备了一系列新颖的合成齐墩果三萜，这些化合物中的某些被认为是最有效的抗炎和抗癌的三萜。越来越多的研究提供了广泛的证据，证明合成的齐墩果烷衍生物在体外抑制多种癌细胞的增殖并诱导其凋亡，并在血液，乳腺癌，结肠癌，结缔组织，肝癌，肺癌，胰腺癌，前列腺癌和皮肤癌的动物模型中证明了癌症的预防或抗肿瘤功效。这篇评论严格审查了齐墩果酸的潜在作用，齐墩果烷三萜和相关合成化合物在化学预防和治疗乳腺肿瘤中的作用。提出了对这些药物和相关分子机制的体外和体内研究。还提出了将现有的令人印象深刻的临床前知识转化为乳腺癌预防和治疗的临床实践的若干挑战和未来的研究方向。