The liver is the largest digestive gland and the core metabolic hub of the human body. Diverse infectious or noninfectious factors can increase the susceptibility of the global population to acute and chronic liver diseases by disrupting the hepatic immune niche. According to statistics, more than 2 million people die from liver diseases each year, and more than 50% of the deaths related to chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis, and liver cancer mainly originate from the Asia-Pacific region. These staggering figures validate the necessity of developing hepatoprotective agents. Given the cost-effectiveness and multi-target benefits of plant-derived bioactive compounds, natural compounds and their potential derivatives may serve as effective alternative drugs targeting diverse benign and cancerous liver lesions. Among these compounds, biochanin A (BCA), a natural phytoestrogen, is also an isoflavone of food origin with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It exhibits remarkable pharmacological benefits in alleviating hepatocellular carcinoma, drug-induced liver injury/hepatotoxicity, liver fibrosis, and metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease by virtue of its regulatory effects on the cell cycle, apoptosis, autophagy, and glycolipid metabolism. However, BCA has poor bioavailability, and the quality of various dietary supplements containing BCA on the market is inconsistent. Therefore, focusing on the chemical conformation of natural products and application of drug development technology will lay a foundation for the development of clinical hepatoprotective agents and related functional foods.
Wu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.