Department of Chemistry, NSS Hindu College, Changanacherry, Kerala, 686102, India.
Department of Chemistry, Mar Thoma College, Thiruvalla, Kerala, 689103, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Jul;27(21):26025-26035. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-09028-0. Epub 2020 May 13.
Cancer is still considered a "hopeless case", besides all of the advancements in oncology research. On the other hand, the natural products, as effective lead molecules, have gained significant interest for research due to the absence of toxic and harmful side effects usually associated with conventional treatment methods. Medicinal properties of herbal plants are strongly evidenced in traditional medicine from ancient times. In the context above, withaferin A (WA) was identified as the active principle of the plant Withania somnifera, its molecule being reported to have excellent anticancer and tumour inhibition activities in various cell lines. Furthermore, the in silico approaches in the medicinal chemistry of WA revealed the biological targets and gave momentum for the research that leads to many amazing pharmacological activities of WA which are not yet explored. This includes a broad spectrum of anticancer actions manifested in different organs (breast, pancreas, colon), melanoma and B cell lymphoma, etc. This review is an extensive survey of the most recent anticancer studies reported for WA, along with its mechanism of action and details about its in vitro and/or in vivo behaviour.
尽管肿瘤学研究取得了诸多进展，但癌症仍然被认为是“不治之症”。另一方面，由于通常与传统治疗方法相关的毒副作用缺失，天然产物作为有效的先导分子，已引起人们对其研究的极大兴趣。草药的药用特性在古代传统医学中得到了有力的证明。在上述背景下，从植物 Withania somnifera 中鉴定出了 Withaferin A (WA) 作为其活性成分，其分子已被报道在各种细胞系中具有优异的抗癌和肿瘤抑制活性。此外，WA 的药物化学中的计算方法揭示了其生物学靶标，并为研究提供了动力，这些研究导致了 WA 的许多尚未探索的惊人的药理学活性。这包括在不同器官（乳腺、胰腺、结肠）、黑色素瘤和 B 细胞淋巴瘤等方面表现出的广谱抗癌作用。本文综述了 WA 的最新抗癌研究，以及其作用机制及其在体外和/或体内行为的详细信息。
