Deoxyelephantopin and Isodeoxyelephantopin as Potential Anticancer Agents with Effects on Multiple Signaling Pathways

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 22; no. 6; p. 1013
• Main Authors: Mehmood, Tahir, Maryam, Amara, Ghramh, Hamed A, Khan, Muhammad, Ma, Tonghui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21.06.2017; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents - metabolism; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Antitumor activity; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - drug effects; Asteraceae - chemistry; Bronchitis; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation - drug effects; Clinical trials; Deregulation; Diabetes mellitus; Diarrhea; Diuresis; Drug development; Drugs; Dysentery; Fever; Herbal medicine; Humans; Lactones - chemistry; Lactones - metabolism; Lactones - pharmacology; Lactones - therapeutic use; Liver; Liver diseases; Medical research; Medicinal herbs; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - metabolism; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Plant Extracts - metabolism; Plant Extracts - pharmacology; Plant Extracts - therapeutic use; Plants, Medicinal - chemistry; Review; Sesquiterpenes - chemistry; Sesquiterpenes - metabolism; Sesquiterpenes - pharmacology; Sesquiterpenes - therapeutic use; Signal transduction; Signal Transduction - drug effects; Transcription Factors - drug effects; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transcription Factors - therapeutic use; Waterborne diseases; Elephantopus carolinianus; inflammation; isodeoxyelephantopin; apoptosis; cancer; deoxyelephantopin; Elephantopus scaber
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules22061013

Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death worldwide. The development of drugs to target only one specific signaling pathway has limited therapeutic success. Developing chemotherapeutics to target multiple signaling pathways has emerged as a new prototype for cancer treatment. Deoxyelephantopin (DET) and isodeoxyelephantopin (IDET) are sesquiterpene lactone components of " ", traditional Chinese medicinal herbs that have long been used as folk medicines to treat liver diseases, diabetes, diuresis, bronchitis, fever, diarrhea, dysentery, cancer, and inflammation. Recently, the anticancer activity of DET and IDET has been widely investigated. Here, our aim is to review the current status of DET and IDET, and discuss their anticancer activity with specific emphasis on molecular targets and mechanisms used by these compounds to trigger apoptosis pathways which may help to further design and conduct research to develop them as lead therapeutic drugs for cancer treatments. The literature has shown that DET and IDET induce apoptosis through multiple signaling pathways which are deregulated in cancer cells and suggested that by targeting multiple pathways simultaneously, these compounds could selectively kill cancer cells. This review suggests that DET and IDET hold promising anticancer activity but additional studies and clinical trials are needed to validate and understand their therapeutic effect to develop them into potent therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.