Zinc Deficiency as a General Feature of Cancer: a Review of the Literature

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Zinc plays a variety of key roles in the human body (Fig. 1). For example, it is crucial to signaling processes involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis [8]. Zinc ions are required for the catalytic activity of a multitude of enzymes, notably the zinc finger proteins, which contain a zinc finger motif stabilized by a zinc ion. This large family of proteins has been implicated in processes as diverse as transcriptional regulation, ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, signal transduction, actin targeting, and DNA repair [9]. In addition to these roles, zinc functions as an antioxidant and plays an essential role in immunity. As reviewed by Prasad, zinc inhibits inflammatory cytokine production and decreases plasma oxidative stress markers [10, 11]. Other studies showed that copper-zinc superoxide dismutase protects tissues from reactive oxygen species, and alterations in the activity of this enzyme have been associated with a wide range of diseases [12, 13].