Natural Products as Anticancer Agents: Current Status and Future Perspectives

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 27; no. 23; p. 8367
• Main Authors: Naeem, Abid, Hu, Pengyi, Yang, Ming, Zhang, Jing, Liu, Yali, Zhu, Weifeng, Zheng, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 30.11.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Alopecia; Angiogenesis; anti-cancer plants; Antimitotic agents; Antineoplastic agents; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Baldness; bioactive anti-tumor agents; Biological Products - chemistry; Biological Products - pharmacology; Biological Products - therapeutic use; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Cell cycle; chemoprevention; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Disease prevention; Drug delivery systems; Drug Discovery; Drug resistance; Humans; Kinases; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Metastasis; Methods; Mortality; Natural products; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - prevention & control; phytochemicals; Radiation therapy; Review; Skin cancer; Testing; China; bioactive anti-tumor agents; natural products; phytochemicals; chemoprevention; anti-cancer plants; chemotherapy
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules27238367

Natural products have been an invaluable and useful source of anticancer agents over the years. Several compounds have been synthesized from natural products by modifying their structures or by using naturally occurring compounds as building blocks in the synthesis of these compounds for various purposes in different fields, such as biology, medicine, and engineering. Multiple modern and costly treatments have been applied to combat cancer and limit its lethality, but the results are not significantly refreshing. Natural products, which are a significant source of new therapeutic drugs, are currently being investigated as potential cytotoxic agents and have shown a positive trend in preclinical research and have prompted numerous innovative strategies in order to combat cancer and expedite the clinical research. Natural products are becoming increasingly important for drug discovery due to their high molecular diversity and novel biofunctionality. Furthermore, natural products can provide superior efficacy and safety due to their unique molecular properties. The objective of the current review is to provide an overview of the emergence of natural products for the treatment and prevention of cancer, such as chemosensitizers, immunotherapeutics, combinatorial therapies with other anticancer drugs, novel formulations of natural products, and the molecular mechanisms underlying their anticancer properties.