Resveratrol, as a natural product compound, has been recently attracted much attention for its potent effects on
cancer.
Cancer is a serious disease threatening human survival and social development. Autophagy is a cellular pathway to realize the metabolic needs of the cell itself and the renewal of some organelles and plays opposing, context-dependent role in
tumorigenesis. So the regulation of autophagy is of great significance in the treatment of
cancer. p62, as an autophagy adaptor
protein, is a preferred target for autophagy and is constantly controlled by constitutive autophagy. As a
tumor-suppression mechanism, autophagy deficiency is common in
tumors, which results in aberrant accumulation of p62 and activates p62-regulated pathways, such as activation of mTOR in nutrient sensing, and the activation of the Keap1-Nrf2 pathway for
antioxidant stress, which are associated with
cancer development. In this review, we emphasize that
resveratrol can induce autophagy in the treatment of
cancer and accelerates the degradation of p62, and then, the mTOR activation is blocked and Nrf2 activation is suppressed. As a result, the multidrug resistance of
cancer cells can be reversed by
resveratrol.