Description
The activities of the dithiolethione analogs, D3T, OLT, and TBD are pharmacologically well-understood. These compounds act as chemopreventive agents whose ability is to block or diminish early stages of carcinogenesis. In addition, the three compounds are classified as monofunctional Phase II enzyme inducers and activate the same pathway, namely the Keap1-Nrf2 signal pathway. The three dithiolethiones were showed to ameliorate the AFB1-induced toxicity through increasing phase II enzymes including glutathione S-transferase (GST). The parent D3T was observed to be the most potent chemoprotective agent. Oltipraz, a clinically approved drug, has been shown to exhibit less efficacy than its analogs for inhibition of aflatoxin-induced hepatic foci.TBD was suggested to be better than OLT as a chemopreventive agent because of its reduced toxicity profile.