Zhao Zhanxue, Liu Linxun, Li Shuai, Hou Xiaofan, Yang Jinyu
Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Department of General Surgery, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Xining, Qinghai, China.
Front Oncol. 2023 Jan 4;12:1092020. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.1092020. eCollection 2022.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses among the most common cancers in the world. Its characteristics include a high rate of metastasis and chemotherapeutic resistance, which present major challenges to the medical community. The potential anticancer effects of thymoquinone (TQ), which is the main bioactive compound of the black seeds of the plant, have recently received widespread attention for their potential use in treating pancreatic cancer. TQ can inhibit cell proliferation, promote cancer cell apoptosis, inhibit cell invasion and metastasis, enhance chemotherapeutic sensitivity, inhibit angiogenesis, and exert anti-inflammatory effects. These anticancer effects predominantly involve the nuclear factor (NF)-κB, phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt, Notch, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways as well as the regulation of the cell cycle, matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)-9 expression, and pyruvate kinase isozyme type M2 (PKM2) activity. TQ regulates the occurrence and development of pancreatic cancer at multiple levels and through multiple targets that communicate with each other. In this review, we summarize and discuss the analogs and carriers of TQ that have been developed in recent years. Given its multilevel anticancer effects, TQ may become a new therapeutic drug for treating pancreatic cancer in the future. This review presents a brief introduction to the research that has been conducted on TQ in relation to pancreatic cancer to provide a theoretical basis for future studies on the topic.
在全球最常见的癌症中，胰腺癌的预后最差。其特点包括高转移率和化疗耐药性，这给医学界带来了重大挑战。百里醌（TQ）是该植物黑籽中的主要生物活性化合物，其潜在的抗癌作用最近因其在治疗胰腺癌中的潜在用途而受到广泛关注。TQ可抑制细胞增殖、促进癌细胞凋亡、抑制细胞侵袭和转移、增强化疗敏感性、抑制血管生成并发挥抗炎作用。这些抗癌作用主要涉及核因子（NF）-κB、磷酸肌醇3激酶（PI3K）/Akt、Notch、转化生长因子（TGF）-β、c-Jun氨基末端激酶（JNK）和p38丝裂原活化蛋白激酶（MAPK）信号通路，以及细胞周期调控、基质金属肽酶（MMP）-9表达和丙酮酸激酶同工酶M2（PKM2）活性。TQ通过多个相互关联的靶点在多个层面调节胰腺癌的发生和发展。在本综述中，我们总结并讨论了近年来开发的TQ类似物和载体。鉴于其多层次的抗癌作用，TQ未来可能成为治疗胰腺癌的新型治疗药物。本综述简要介绍了关于TQ与胰腺癌相关的研究，为该主题的未来研究提供理论依据。
