Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National Universiti of Malaysia), Jalan Yaacob Latif 56000, Cheras, Malaysia.
Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam Campus, Bandar Puncak Alam 42300, Selangor, Malaysia.
Curr Drug Targets. 2018;19(10):1109-1126. doi: 10.2174/1389450118666170718151913.
Eurycoma longifolia is a well-documented herbal medicine that has gained widespread recognition due to its versatile pharmacological activities including anticancer, antimalarial, antimicrobial, antioxidant, aphrodisiac, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, anti-diabetic, antirheumatism and anti-ulcer. Plethora of in vitro and in vivo studies evidenced their excellent antiproliferative and anticancer efficacy against various types of human cancers.
This review was aimed to critically analyze the therapeutic viability and anticancer efficacy of Eurycoma longifolia in the treatment of cancer and also to propose its molecular and translational mechanism of cytotoxicity against cancerous cells.
Among a range of medicinally active compounds isolated from various parts (roots, stem, bark and leaves) of Eurycoma longifolia, 16 compounds have shown promising anti-proliferative and anticancer efficacies. Eurycomanone, one of the most active medicinal compounds of Eurycoma longifolia, displayed a strong dose-dependent anticancer efficacy against lung carcinoma (A-549 cells) and breast cancer (MCF-7 cells); however, showed moderate efficacy against gastric (MGC-803 cells) and intestinal carcinomas (HT-29 cells). The prime mode of cytotoxicity of Eurycoma longifolia and its medicinal compounds is the induction of apoptosis (programmed cell death) via the up-regulation of the expression of p53 (tumor suppressor protein) and pro-apoptotic protein (Bax) and downregulation of the expression of anti-apoptotic protein (Bcl-2). A remarkable alleviation in the mRNA expression of various cancer-associated biomarkers including heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP), prohibitin (PHB), annexin-1 (ANX1) and endoplasmic reticulum protein-28 (ERp28) has also been evidenced.
Eurycoma longifolia and its medicinal constituents exhibit promising anticancer efficacy and thus can be considered as potential complementary therapy for the treatment of various types of human cancers.
益智是一种被广泛研究的草药，由于其具有多种药理活性，包括抗癌、抗疟、抗菌、抗氧化、壮阳、抗炎、抗焦虑、抗糖尿病、抗风湿和抗溃疡等，因此已得到广泛认可。大量的体外和体内研究证明了其对各种人类癌症的优异的增殖抑制和抗癌功效。
本综述旨在批判性地分析益智在癌症治疗中的治疗可行性和抗癌功效，并提出其对癌细胞的细胞毒性的分子和转化机制。
在从益智的不同部位（根、茎、树皮和叶）中分离出的一系列具有药用活性的化合物中，有 16 种化合物显示出有希望的抗增殖和抗癌功效。益智酮，益智中最具活性的药用化合物之一，对肺癌（A-549 细胞）和乳腺癌（MCF-7 细胞）表现出强烈的剂量依赖性抗癌功效；然而，对胃癌（MGC-803 细胞）和肠癌（HT-29 细胞）则表现出中等功效。益智及其药用化合物的主要细胞毒性模式是通过上调肿瘤抑制蛋白（p53）和促凋亡蛋白（Bax）的表达以及下调抗凋亡蛋白（Bcl-2）的表达来诱导细胞凋亡（程序性细胞死亡）。还证明了各种与癌症相关的生物标志物的 mRNA 表达显著减轻，包括异质核核糖核蛋白（hnRNP）、抑制素（PHB）、膜联蛋白-1（ANX1）和内质网蛋白-28（ERp28）。
益智及其药用成分具有有希望的抗癌功效，因此可以被认为是治疗各种人类癌症的潜在辅助疗法。
