anthricin and Neoplasms

Lignans constitute an important group of polyphenols, which have been demonstrated to potently suppress cancer cell proliferation. Numerous in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that deoxypodophyllotoxin as a natural lignan possesses potent anticancer activities against various types of human cancer. The purpose of current review is to provide the reader with the latest findings in understanding the anticancer effects and molecular mechanisms of deoxypodophyllotoxin. This review comprehensively describes the influence of deoxypodophyllotoxin on signaling cascades and molecular targets implicated in cancer cell proliferation and invasion. A number of various signaling molecules and pathways, including apoptosis, necroptosis, cell cycle, angiogenesis, vascular disruption, ROS, MMPs, glycolysis, and microtubules as well as NF-κB, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, and MAPK cascades have been reported to be responsible for the anticancer activities of deoxypodophyllotoxin. The results of present review suggest that the cyclolignan deoxypodophyllotoxin can be developed as a novel and potent anticancer agent, especially as an alternative option for treatment of resistant tumors to chemotherapy.

Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; Cell Proliferation; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Humans; Lignans; Neoplasms; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; Podophyllotoxin

To discover and develop novel natural compounds, active ingredients, single herbs and combination formulas or prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with therapeutic selectivity that can preferentially kill cancer cells and inhibit the amplification of cancer without significant toxicity is an important area in cancer therapy. A lot of valuable TCMs were applied as alternative or complementary medicines in the United States and Europe. But these TCMs, as one of the main natural resources, were widely used to research and develop new drugs in Asia. In TCMs, some specific herbs, animals, minerals and combination formulas were recorded and exploited due to their active ingredients and specific natural compounds with antitumor activities. The article focused on the antitumor properties of natural compounds and combination formulas or prescriptions in TCMs, described its influence on tumor progression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and revealed its mechanisms of antitumor and inhibitory action. Among the nature compounds, triptolide, berberine, matrine, oxymatrine, kurarinone and deoxypodophyllotoxin (DPT) with specific molecular structures have been separated, purified, and evaluated their antitumor properties in vitro and in vivo. Cancer is a multifactorial and multistep disease, so the treatment effect of combination formulas and prescriptions in TCMs involving multi-targets and multi-signal pathways on tumor may be superior than that of agents targeting a single molecular target alone. Shi Quan Da Bu Tang and Yanshu injection, as well known combination formulas and prescriptions in TCMs, have shown an excellent therapeutic effect on cancer.

Topics: Alkaloids; Amphibian Venoms; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Berberine; Diterpenes; Drug Combinations; Drug Discovery; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Epoxy Compounds; Flavonoids; Humans; Matrines; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Molecular Conformation; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Neoplasms; Phenanthrenes; Plants, Medicinal; Podophyllotoxin; Quinolizines

Cancer is a kind of malignant diseases that threatens human health and the research application of anti-tumor drug therapeutics is growingly always been focused on. Many new compounds with great anticancer activity were synthesized but cannot be hard to be developed into clinical use due to its poor water solubility. Deoxypodophyllotoxin (DPT) is just an example. We develop lyophilized Deoxypodophyllotoxin (DPT) loaded polymeric micelles using methoxy polyethylene glycol-block-Poly (D, L-lactide) (mPEG-PLA). DPT-PM freeze-dried powder was successfully prepared using optimized formulation. mPEG-PLA was added to hydration media before hydrating as cryoprotectants. The freeze-dried powder exhibited white pie-solid without collapsing, and the particle size of DPT-PM reconstituted with water was about 20-35 nm. The entrapment efficiency of the reconstituted solution was 98%, which shows no differences with the micelles before lyophilization.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Cell Line, Tumor; Drug Delivery Systems; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Freeze Drying; Humans; Male; Mice; Mice, Nude; Micelles; Nanoparticles; Neoplasms; Particle Size; Podophyllotoxin; Polyesters; Polyethylene Glycols; Time Factors; Tissue Distribution

New phenothiazine derivatives 6-20 have been designed, synthesized and evaluated in vitro for their ability to inhibit tubulin polymerization and antiproliferative activity against 60 cancer cell lines, including several multi-drug resistant (MDR) tumor cell lines. The phenothiazine unit may successfully replace the classical 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyle A ring of parent combretastatin A-4 or phenstatin, confirming previous studies. The most promising structural modulations have been realized on the B ring, the 2'-fluoro-4'-methoxy substitution in compound 6 and the 2'-trifluoromethyl-4'-methoxy substitution in compound 7 providing the best antitubulin and antitumor activity in the current study. Compounds 6-8 and 16 exhibited more important cell growth inhibition than parent phenstatin 2 on human colon Duke's type D, colorectal adenocarcinoma COLO 205 and on human kidney adenocarcinoma A498 cell lines. 10-Methylphenothiazine derivatives 19 and 20 did not show biological activity but exerted bright fluorescence and solvatochromism effects. These molecules deserve further chemical efforts in order to provide valuable tools for biophysical studies.

Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Humans; Models, Molecular; Neoplasms; Phenothiazines; Structure-Activity Relationship; Tubulin; Tubulin Modulators

Bioassay-guided chemical investigation of the roots of Anthriscus sylvestris (L.) Hoffm. resulted in the isolation of nine compounds, whose structures were determined by spectroscopic methods. Compound 1 was isolated from this plant for the first time and compounds 3 and 9 were first found from this genus. Different polar fractions of A. sylvestris extract and compounds 1, 6-8 and 9 were evaluated for antitumor activities against HepG2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma), MG-63 (human osteosarcoma cells), B16 (melanoma cells) and HeLa (human cervical carcinoma cells) lines by the MTT method. The petroleum ether fraction of A. sylvestris extract exhibited excellent inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 18.3 μg/ml. Among the isolates from the petroleum ether fraction, compound 7 showed significant inhibition against the growth of the four tumor cells with IC50 values ranging from 12.2-43.3 μg/ml.

Topics: Alkanes; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Apiaceae; Apoptosis; Cell Proliferation; Heterocyclic Compounds, 4 or More Rings; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Molecular Structure; Neoplasms; Plant Extracts; Plant Roots; Tumor Cells, Cultured

Podophyllotoxin is a natural product that inhibits the polymerization of tubulin and has served as a prototype for the development of diverse antitumor agents in clinical use, such as etoposide, teniposide and etopophos. Reumacon, another semisynthetic derivative, reached its clinical phase for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.. This study investigated the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of three compound derivatives from podophyllotoxin.. During a phytochemical study performed on Juniperus thurifera Linne (Cupressaceae) leaves, among other products, several cyclolignans, such as podophyllotoxin, deoxypodophyllotoxin, deoxypicropodophyllotoxin and thuriferic acid were isolated. These compounds, obtained afterwards through semisynthesis, were assayed as analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents. Additionally, the cytotoxic activity of thuriferic acid was evaluated in three cancer cell lines, P-388, A-549 and HT-29, and these data were compared with previous cytotoxicity results obtained for the other three compounds.. Analgesic activity results showed that deoxypicropodophyllin is as effective as deoxypodophyllotoxin to inhibit nociceptive perception induced by acetic acid in mice (77.8% ± 4.1% and 71.3% ± 6.5%, respectively), while its cytotoxicity [1.01 × 10(-7) (GI50 M)] is 100-fold less. Other set of experiments showed that thuriferic acid, a derivative of podophyllotoxin a thousand times less citotoxic [1.21 × 10(-5) (GI50 M)] than deoxypodophyllotoxin, caused significant inhibition of paw edema development in the carrageenan-induced inflammation test (63.4% ± 3.3%), effect comparable to those of deoxypodophyllotoxin (66.3% ± 4.4%), and the standard drug indomethacin (61.5% ± 2.5%).. We conclude that deoxypicropodophyllotoxin and thuriferic acid are effective in reducing edema formation. However, deoxypicropodophyllin is more related with analgesic activity than anti-inflammatory effect.

Topics: Analgesics; Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Carbazoles; Cell Line, Tumor; Disease Models, Animal; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; HT29 Cells; Humans; Indomethacin; Inflammation; Juniperus; Male; Mice; Naphthalenes; Neoplasms; Pain; Plant Leaves; Podophyllotoxin

In order to generate compounds with superior antitumor activity and reduced toxicity, a series of conjugates of deoxypodophyllotoxin and 5-FU were synthesized by coupling 4'-demethyl-4-dexoypodophyllotoxin with N-(5-fluorouracil-N(1)-ly acetic)- amino acids (or 5-fluorouracil-N(1)-ly acetic acid). The cytotoxic activity of these compounds against four human cancer cell lines (HL-60, A-549, HeLa and SiHa) were evaluated, and results indicated that these compounds were more potent in terms of cytotoxicity than either parent compound DPT or anticancer drug VP-16 and 5-FU. In addition, we found that 14d induced cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase accompanied by apoptosis in A-549 cells, and 14d activated caspase-3 and -7. These results suggested that caspase-mediated pathways are involved in 14d induced apoptosis.

Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; Caspase 3; Caspase 7; Cell Line, Tumor; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Enzyme Activation; Fluorouracil; G2 Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Humans; M Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Neoplasms; Podophyllotoxin