Table 1.

Anti-leukemia cells activities of artemisinins

Compounds	Effect	Event/mechanism	References
Derivatives	Reversed multidrug resistance	Overcoming cross resistance	[31, 61]
DHA	Induced autophagy Inhibited tumor growth	Expression of LC3-II, caspase-3 activation, Down-regulation of TfR expression, and cell growth arrested in the G2/M phase	[62]
DHA	Induced apoptosis	Up-regulated the transcription factor FOXO3a	[63]
ART-838	Inhibited cell growth Reduced cell proliferation and clonogenicity Induced apoptosis Increased intracellular levels of ROS	Increased intracellular ROS levels	[64]
ART, AS, DHA	Induced apoptosis Increased ROS generation	Induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis by activated caspase 3/7 Induced ROS generation and lysosomal disruption	[65]
DHA	Inhibited tumor growth	Suppressed the expression of Bcr/Abl protein, Reduced the Bcr/Abl tyrosine activity of AKT and ERK1/2, suppressed NF-κB protein expression, Promoted the cytochrome c release and activated caspase3/9	[66]
DHA	Induced cell death	Inhibited the Bcr/Abl fusion gene at the mRNA level Inhibited the expression of Bcr/Abl and suppressed the activity of tyrosine kinase, suppressed the downstream signals of Bcr/Abl, reduced the tyrosine kinase activity of AKT and ERK1/2, promoted the cytochrome c release and activated caspase9/3	[67]
AS	Suppressed tumor growth Induced apoptosis	Suppressed the phosphorylation of p38, ERK, CREB, Chk-2, STAT5, and RSK proteins, Activated caspase-3, inhibited p38, ERK, STAT5, and CREB activation	[68]