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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Phytochem Rev. 2014 Feb 5;13(4):793–810. doi: 10.1007/s11101-014-9337-5

Table 1.

In vitro antitumor effects and related mechanisms of action of natural and synthetic oleanane triterpenoids in various breast cancer cells

Compounds Effects Mechanisms Concentrations References
Oleanolic acid Displayed weak cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 and MDA-MB- 231 cells Hsu et al. (2005)
Exhibited antiproliferative activity against T47D cells Matysik et al. (2005)
Exhibited cytotoxic effects against Hs578T and MDA-MB-231 cells ↑Apoptosis; cholesterol homeostasis; ↓mTORC1; ↓mTORC2 Chu et al. (2010)
Elicited modest inhibitory effects on the growth of MCF-7 cells Mencherini et al. (2011)
Induced proliferation-inhibiting effects in MCF-7 and MCF-7/ ADR cells 28–44 μM Shan et al. (2011)
Inhibited the survival and proliferation of MCF-7 cells Cell cycle arrest; ↓ROS; ↓oxidative DNA damage Allouche et al. (2011)
Inhibited the survival of MCF-7 cells ↑p53; ↑p21WAFI/CipI 6.4 μg/ml Gu et al. (2012)
Exerted antiproliferative effects in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells Cell cycle arrest; ↑apoptosis 7.0–7.5 μM Chakravarti et al. (2012)
Remangilones A
Remangilones C		 Exhibited cytotoxic effects in MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB- 435 cells ↑Apoptosis 1.6–8.5 μM Deng et al. (1999)
3β,23,28-Trihydroxy-12- oleanene 23-caffeate; 3β,23,28-Trihydroxy-12- oleanene 3β-caffeate Showed cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells Antioxidant mechanism 1.8–2.2 μg/ml Yun et al. (1999)
Hederacolchisid A1 Displayed cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells ~10 μM Barthomeuf et al. (2002)
Maslinic acid Inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells 136 μM He and Liu (2007)
Increased the proliferation of MCF- 7 cells 12.5–100 μM Allouche et al. (2011)
Erythrodiol Exerted complete inhibition of the proliferation of MCF-7 cells 12.5–100 μM Allouche et al. (2011)
β-Amyrin Exhibited cytotoxicity against in MCF-7 cells El-Alfy et al. (2011)
Achyranthoside H methyl ester Displayed cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells ↑Sub-G1; PARP cleavage; caspase activation; ↑apoptosis 2–100 μM Fukumura et al. (2009)
Oleanolic acid derivatives Exerted antiproliferative effects against MDA-MB-231 cells 44.8–67.9 μM Kang et al. (2012)
Exerted growth inhibitory activity against MCF-7 cells 1.98–35.4 μM Hao et al. (2013)
CDDO Suppressed the proliferation of MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, 21-MT-1, 21-MT-2, 21-NT and 21-PT cells 3 × 10−2– 1 μM Suh et al. (1999)
Induced the growth inhibitory effects in MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-435 cells ⊥G1-S; ⊥;G2-M; ↑apoptosis; ↓cyclin D1; ↑p21Waf1/CIP1; ↓Bcl-2 0.05–10 μM Lapillonne et al. (2003)
Retarded the growth of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-435 cells ↓HER2 phosphorylation; ↓HER2 kinase; ↓caveolin-1 3.5–7.5 μM Konopleva et al. (2006)
CDDO; CDDO-Im Suppressed the proliferation of MCF-7 cells 10–30 nM Place et al. (2003)
CDDO; CDDO-Im Sensitized T47D and MDA-MB- 468 cells to TRAIL ↑Apoptosis; ↑DR4; ↑DR5; ↓ FLIPL Hyer et al. (2005)
CDDO; CDDO-Me Inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells 0.06–0.16 μM Honda et al. (2004)
CDDO-Me Blocked the proliferation and invasion of 4T1 cells ⊥G2-M; ↓STAT3; ↓Src; ↓Akt; ↓c-Myc Ling et al. (2007)
CDDO-Im; CDDO-Me; CDDO-TFEA Demonstrated cytotoxic activities against W780 and W0069 cells ↑Apoptosis; ⊥G2-M; ↑ROS; DNA damage Kim et al. (2011)
CDDO-Me Exerted antiproliferative effect in W780 cells ⊥G0-G1; ↓pErbB2 0.1–1 μM Kim et al. (2012)
CDDO-Me Inhibited the proliferation of PyMT cells ↓CCL2; ↓CXCL2; ↓MMP-9; ↓cyclin D1; ↓EGFR; ↓STAT3 0.1–1 μM Tran et al. (2012)
CDDO-Me; CDDO-EA Reduced the viability of PyMT cells ↓M-CSF; ↓MMP-9 0.1–0.3 μM Tran et al. (2013)
AMR Exhibited the growth inhibitory effect in MCF-7 cells 2.5 μg/ml Rabi et al. (2002)
Exerted cytotoxicity against MCF-7 and MCF-7/TH cells ↑Apoptosis; ⊥G2-M; ↑total caspase; ↑caspase-8 3.8–6.8 μg/ml Rabi et al. (2003)
Diminished the survival of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cells ↑Apoptosis; ⊥G2-M; ↑caspase-3/7; ↑p53; ↑Bax; ↓Bcl2 1.8–7.0 μM Rabi et al. (2007)
AMR-Me Displayed cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 cells 1.8 μg/ml Rabi et al. (2002)
Curbed the proliferation of MCF-7 and MCF-7/p53siRNA cells ↑Apoptosis; ⊥G2-M; ↑caspase-3/7; ↑Bax; ↓Bcl2; ↓cyclin A; ↓cyclin B1; ↑JNK; ↑MAPK 0.5–0.6 μM Rabi and Banerjee (2008)
Inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells ↑Apoptosis; ↓ER-α; ↓PI3K p85; ↓Akt1; ↓pAkt; ↓NF-κB-DNA binding 0.15–0.45 μM Rabi et al. (2013)