Caffeine and its main targets of colorectal cancer

Figure 5 The main signaling pathways associated with colorectal cancer that can be influenced by caffeine involved in this article. Caffeine can interact with a number of signaling pathways. It shows an active effect on phosphatase and tensin homolog, β-catenin and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. Additionally, it has negative effects on transforming growth factor β, NF-ΚB, phosphoinositide-3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin and c-Jun N-terminal kinase pathways. Moreover, caffeine showed a dual function on RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathways depending on concentration of caffeine. PTEN: Phosphatase and tensin homolog; MAPK: Mitogen-activated protein kinase; TGF-β: Transforming growth factor β; PI3K: Phosphoinositide-3-kinase; mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin; JNK: c-Jun N-terminal kinase.