National Center for Drug Research and Evaluation, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy.
Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, 40136 Bologna, Italy.
Molecules. 2024 Aug 9;29(16):3784. doi: 10.3390/molecules29163784.
Cancer is a complex disease that affects millions of people and remains a major public health problem worldwide. Conventional cancer treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy, have limited achievements and multiple drawbacks, among which are healthy tissue damage and multidrug-resistant phenotype onset. Increasing evidence shows that many plants' natural products, as well as their bioactive compounds, have promising anticancer activity and exhibit minimal toxicity compared to conventional anticancer drugs. However, their widespread use in cancer therapy is severely restricted by limitations in terms of their water solubility, absorption, lack of stability, bioavailability, and selective targeting. The use of nanoformulations for plants' natural product transportation and delivery could be helpful in overcoming these limitations, thus enhancing their therapeutic efficacy and providing the basis for improved anticancer treatment strategies. The present review is aimed at providing an update on some phytocompounds (curcumin, resveratrol, quercetin, and cannabinoids, among others) and their main nanoformulations showing antitumor activities, both in vitro and in vivo, against such different human cancer types as breast and colorectal cancer, lymphomas, malignant melanoma, glioblastoma multiforme, and osteosarcoma. The intracellular pathways underlying phytocompound anticancer activity and the main advantages of nanoformulation employment are also examined. Finally, this review critically analyzes the research gaps and limitations causing the limited success of phytocompounds' and nanoformulations' clinical translation.
癌症是一种复杂的疾病,影响着数百万人,仍然是全球主要的公共卫生问题。传统的癌症治疗方法,包括手术、化疗、免疫疗法和放射疗法,取得的成果有限,且存在多种弊端,其中包括健康组织损伤和多药耐药表型的发生。越来越多的证据表明,许多植物的天然产物及其生物活性化合物具有有前途的抗癌活性,并且与传统抗癌药物相比,毒性最小。然而,由于其水溶性、吸收性、稳定性、生物利用度和选择性靶向性等方面的限制,它们在癌症治疗中的广泛应用受到严重限制。植物天然产物的纳米制剂用于运输和递药,可能有助于克服这些限制,从而提高其治疗效果,并为改进抗癌治疗策略提供基础。本综述旨在提供一些植物化合物(姜黄素、白藜芦醇、槲皮素和大麻素等)及其主要纳米制剂的最新信息,这些化合物和制剂在体外和体内对不同类型的人类癌症(如乳腺癌和结直肠癌、淋巴瘤、恶性黑色素瘤、多形性胶质母细胞瘤和骨肉瘤)具有抗肿瘤活性。还研究了植物化合物抗癌活性的细胞内途径以及纳米制剂应用的主要优势。最后,本综述批判性地分析了导致植物化合物和纳米制剂临床转化有限成功的研究差距和局限性。
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