Antiproliferative and Cytotoxic Activities

Abstract

Cancer is a genetic disease, affecting many people worldwide.Chemotherapy is routinely used for cancer treatment. However, this therapeuticapproach is not always effective due to the development of cell resistance and toxiceffects. Plants are a reservoir of natural chemicals with chemoprotective potentialagainst cancer and with low adverse effects. While some drugs from natural originare currently used for cancer treatment, others are being studied. Among the compoundsisolated from plants, sesquiterpene lactones are very promising anticanceragents, which are widely being studied in different models of cancer in vitro andin vivo, and some clinical trials are being performed. Sesquiterpene lactones arevery attractive compounds to be used as antitumoral therapy due to the diversemechanisms of action through which they exert their effects. Among suchmechanismsare their capacity to interfere with the generation of reactive oxygenspecies, the epigenetic modulation of gene expression, the targeting of the sarco-/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase pump, and the activation of the NF-kB andthe p53 signaling pathways. The latter mechanisms could be important to reduce thedevelopment of drug resistance by tumor cells. Sesquiterpene lactones can alsoinhibit angiogenesis and metastasis.