Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
State Key Laboratory of Research on Bioactivities and Clinical Applications of Medicinal Plants, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Molecules. 2023 Aug 1;28(15):5804. doi: 10.3390/molecules28155804.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an invasive and persistent subtype of breast cancer that is likely to be resistant to conventional treatments. The rise in immunotherapy has created new modalities to treat cancer, but due to high costs and unreliable efficacy, adjunctive and complementary treatments have sparked interest in enhancing the efficacy of currently available treatments. Natural products, which are bioactive compounds derived from natural sources, have historically been used to treat or ameliorate inflammatory diseases and symptoms. As TNBC patients have shown little to no response to immunotherapy, the potential of natural products as candidates for adjuvant immunotherapy is being explored, as well as their immunomodulatory effects on cancer. Due to the complexity of TNBC and the ever-changing tumor microenvironment, there are challenges in determining the feasibility of using natural products to enhance the efficacy or counteract the toxicity of conventional treatments. In view of technological advances in molecular docking, pharmaceutical networking, and new drug delivery systems, natural products show promise as potential candidates in adjunctive therapy. In this article, we summarize the mechanisms of action of selected natural-product-based bioactive compounds and analyze their roles and applications in combination treatments and immune regulation.
三阴性乳腺癌（TNBC）是一种侵袭性和持续性的乳腺癌亚型，可能对常规治疗产生抗药性。免疫疗法的兴起为癌症治疗创造了新的方法，但由于成本高和疗效不可靠，辅助和补充治疗激发了人们提高现有治疗方法疗效的兴趣。天然产物是从天然来源中提取的生物活性化合物，历史上一直被用于治疗或缓解炎症性疾病和症状。由于 TNBC 患者对免疫疗法几乎没有反应，因此正在探索天然产物作为辅助免疫疗法候选物的潜力，以及它们对癌症的免疫调节作用。由于 TNBC 的复杂性和不断变化的肿瘤微环境，确定使用天然产物来提高疗效或抵消常规治疗毒性的可行性存在挑战。鉴于分子对接、药物网络和新型药物输送系统等技术的进步，天然产物作为辅助治疗的潜在候选物具有广阔的前景。在本文中，我们总结了选定的基于天然产物的生物活性化合物的作用机制，并分析了它们在联合治疗和免疫调节中的作用和应用。
