TABLE 7.
List of anticancer natural product classifications based on pathways of action.
| Mode of action | Natural product | Compound activity | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apoptosis inducer | Ursolic acid | Degrades ferritin by activating autophagy and induces intracellular overload of ferrous ions, leading to ferroptosis | Tang et al. (2021) |
| Propolis | Induction of apoptosis through bax, bcl-2, p53, and caspase-3 pathways; angiogenesis targets are the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and protein kinase A. | Mehany et al. (2022) | |
| Stage 1: activates Nrf2 and reduces ROS; stage 2: inhibits the constitutive expression of Nrf2 in AsT and promotes ROS and apoptosis | Dang et al. (2021) | ||
| Curcumin | Curcumin analogs (CA-5f) decreases uPA protein levels by upregulating PAI-1. | Kim and Moon, (2022) | |
| PLGA-Cur-NP treatment synergistic with I kappa B alpha overexpression enhances the apoptosis of PC cells by suppressing NF-kappa B pathway activation | Guo et al. (2021) | ||
| Resveratrol | Combination of resveratrol and curcumin showed stronger cytotoxicity, especially related to the induction of stronger endoplasmic reticulum stress and the upregulation of the pro-death UPR molecule CHOP. | Arena et al. (2021) | |
| Promotes apoptosis-related protein caspase-3 to activate poly-ADP-ribose polymerase and cleavage of caspase-3 and reduces survivin protein levels in a dose-dependent manner | Ma et al. (2021) | ||
| Gaillardin | Inhibits NF-kappa B activation and subsequently downregulates genes regulated by NF-kappa B | Roozbehani et al. (2021) | |
| Theranekron D6 | Increases the expression of Cas-9 and the mRNA and protein expression ratio of bax/bcl-2 | Tosun et al. (2021) | |
| Antiangiogenic and antimetastatic agents | Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) | Significantly reduces the level of HUVECs endothelin/pSmad1 and inhibits angiogenesis by downregulating VEGF. | Chen et al. (2019) |
| Lupeol (LUP) | Interferes with the angiogenesis process by reducing the formation of new blood vessels | Bociort et al. (2021) | |
| Saikosaponin A | Regulation of the angiogenesis-related VEGFR2/Src/Akt pathway and expression of epithelial–mesenchymal transformation (EMT)-related proteins inhibit SK-N-AS invasion and migration | Cheng and Ying, (2021) | |
| Ononin | Inhibits HUVEC migration and invasion induced by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) | Gong et al. (2021) | |
| Berberine | Mitochondrial function is impaired by impairing mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial complex I, resulting in the selective elimination of Mdr1p overexpressed C. albicans cells | Tong et al. (2021) | |
| Quercetin | Downregulates the expression of the glutamine transporter solute carrier family 1, member 5 (SLC1A5) in SW620/Ad300 cells | Zhou et al. (2020) | |
| Multidrug resistance reversal agents | Babaodan (BBD) | Reverses the MDR and induces apoptosis and autophagy of SGC7901/DDP cells and inhibits the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activity | Zhao et al. (2021) |
| Dihydromyricetin (DMY) | Restores chemosensitivity (OXA and VCR) by inhibiting both the MRP2 expression and its promoter activity in HCT116/OXA and HCT8/VCR cell lines, inhibits the expression of NF-Kappa B/P65, and reduces the translocation of NF-Kappa B/P65 to the nuclear silencing Nrf2 signal | Wang et al. (2021) | |
| Fucoidan | (TCR)/CD3 complex, enhances the TCR-mediated signaling pathway, and cooperates with the JAK-STAT pathway to stimulate T-cell activation | Yang et al. (2021) | |
| Immunomodulatorsr | Myricetin | Inhibits cell proliferation and reduces the synthesis of interferon, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, and IL-17 associated with different T-helper cell subpopulations | Ghassemi-Rad et al. (2018) |
| Bergapten | Promotes T-cell proliferation and upregulates IFN-γ and IL-4 cytokines in aging mice | Xie et al. (2018) | |
| A. membranaceus polysaccharides (APS) | Intranasal treatment of APS activated DCs, which further stimulated natural killer (NK) and T cells in the mLN. | Hwang et al. (2021) | |
| Atractylenolide I (ATT-I) | Binding of ATT-I to PSMD4 enhances the antigen processing activity of the immune proteasome, leading to the enhancement of MHC-I-mediated antigen presentation on cancer cells. | Xu et al. (2021) | |
| Kolaflavanone (KLF) | Inhibits both the basal and microtubule-activated ATPase activities of Eg5 | Alrazi et al. (2021) | |
| Tanshinone IIA analog | The structurally modified compound 2F binds to the tubulin colchicine site, inhibits tubulin assembly, and destroys the normal formation of the microtubule network. | Huang H et al. (2021) | |
| Microtubule inhibitor | Eugenol | Autophagy was induced by the upregulation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) and the downregulation of nuclear pore protein 62 (NUp62) | Abdalla et al. (2020) |
| Millepachine (MIL-1) | Interferes with the balance of tubulin-microtubule dynamics, irreversibly binding to tubulin; cell cycle arrest occurred in the G2/M phase, and apoptosis was induced by activation of the caspase-3 activity and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) | Yan J et al. (2021) | |
| Camptothecin | Selective inhibition of topoisomerase ⅰ, by binding topoisomerase Ⅰ to the complex formed by DNA to prevent tumor cell DNA replication and RNA synthesis | Pourquier and Lansiaux, (2011) | |
| Topoisomerase inhibitor | Scaffold-hopped flavones | Synthesized based on the strategy of scaffold-hopping, and it has more significant inhibitory activity against human TopoⅡα | Priyadarshani et al. (2016) |
| Oxocrebanine | Regulation of TopoⅠ, Ⅱα, and DNA damage-related proteins | Yu et al. (2021) | |
| Evodiamine derivatives | Anticancer and antihepatic fibrosis via blocking topoisomerase, NF-κB, TGF-β/HGF, and Smad2/3 | Fan et al. (2021) | |
| Telomerase inhibitor | Isoquinoline alkaloids (Chelidonium majus) | Strongly interacts with telomere sequence G-quadruplex; telomerase activity was inhibited by substrate isolation | Noureini et al. (2017) |
| Camptothecin | Camptothecin, like curcumin, binds to 10 functional domains of hTERT. Camptothecin has stronger molecular stability and telomerase inhibitor activity | Rowaiye et al. (2021) | |
| Curcumin | |||
| Amentoflavone | Telomerase activity is blocked by the formation of Quadruplex DNA at the ends of telomeres. | Revikumar, (2021) | |
| Emodin | G4 structure stabilizes in vitro and induces telomere dysfunction | Liu et al. (2019) | |
| β-escin | β-escin and the cardiac glycosides inhibit ECM production in mesothelial cells and fibroblasts | Lengyel et al. (2021) | |
| Tumor microenvironment regulator | Icaritin | Increased infiltration of CD8+ T cells in the TME; CD8+ T-cell infiltration in the TME was promoted by the downregulation of immunosuppressive cytokines (TNF-α, IL10, and IL6) and the upregulation of chemotaxis (CXCL9 and CXCL10) | Huang C et al. (2021) |