Lycopene as a guardian of redox signalling

It has been suggested that lycopene, the major carotenoid\r\nfound in tomato, exhibits health-beneficial effects\r\nby virtue of its antioxidant activity. However, recent literature\r\nsuggests that lycopene can actually “perform”\r\nroles independent of such capacity and involving a direct\r\nmodulation of redox signalling. Reactive oxygen\r\nspecies are known to act as second messengers in the\r\nmodulation of cellular signalling leading to gene expression\r\nchanges and pharmacological responses. Lycopene\r\nmay control redox-sensitive molecular targets, affecting\r\nenzyme activities and expressions and modulating the\r\nactivation of MAPKs and transcription factors, such as\r\nNF-κB and AP-1, Nrf2.