Gimła Mariola, Herman-Antosiewicz Anna
Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland.
Biomedicines. 2024 Sep 26;12(10):2199. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12102199.
Cancer, a complex group of diseases marked by uncontrolled cell growth and invasive behavior, is characterized by distinct hallmarks acquired during tumor development. These hallmarks, first proposed by Douglas Hanahan and Robert Weinberg in 2000, provide a framework for understanding cancer's complexity. Targeting them is a key strategy in cancer therapy. It includes inhibiting abnormal signaling, reactivating growth suppressors, preventing invasion and metastasis, inhibiting angiogenesis, limiting replicative immortality, modulating the immune system, inducing apoptosis, addressing genome instability and regulating cellular energetics. Usnic acid (UA) is a natural compound found in lichens that has been explored as a cytotoxic agent against cancer cells of different origins. Although the exact mechanisms remain incompletely understood, UA presents a promising compound for therapeutic intervention. Understanding its impact on cancer hallmarks provides valuable insights into the potential of UA in developing targeted and multifaceted cancer therapies. This article explores UA activity in the context of disrupting hallmarks in cancer cells of different origins based on recent articles that emphasize the molecular mechanisms of this activity.
癌症是一组复杂的疾病，其特征是细胞不受控制地生长和具有侵袭性，在肿瘤发展过程中会获得一些独特的特征。这些特征由道格拉斯·哈纳汉和罗伯特·温伯格于2000年首次提出，为理解癌症的复杂性提供了一个框架。针对这些特征是癌症治疗的关键策略。它包括抑制异常信号传导、重新激活生长抑制因子、防止侵袭和转移、抑制血管生成、限制复制永生、调节免疫系统、诱导细胞凋亡、解决基因组不稳定问题以及调节细胞能量代谢。松萝酸（UA）是一种在地衣中发现的天然化合物，已被研究作为一种针对不同来源癌细胞的细胞毒性药物。尽管确切机制仍未完全了解，但UA是一种有前景的用于治疗干预的化合物。了解其对癌症特征的影响，为深入了解UA在开发靶向和多方面癌症治疗方法中的潜力提供了有价值的见解。本文基于最近强调该活性分子机制的文章，探讨了UA在破坏不同来源癌细胞特征方面的活性。
