Table 1.

Anticancer preclinical studies and potential mechanisms of action of natural compounds from Prunus armeniaca.

Cancer Type	Model	Main Cellular Effects	Ref
Cancers of the nervous system	N2a neuroblastoma cells in vitro	↑Bax, ↑caspase-3, ↓Blc2 LC50 > 5.0 mg/mL	[66]
	C6 glioma cells in vitro	antiproliferative effect	[68]
Digestive cancers	KB oral cancer cells in vitro	↓8-OH-dG IC50 = 61 µg/mL	[69]
	AGS human gastric carcinoma cells in vitro	↓cell proliferation IC50 = 4 mg/mL	[71]
	HepG2 cells in vitro	↑apoptosis, ↑autophagy, ↑antioxidant defenses antiproliferative, ↓angiogenesis ↓TNF-α, ↓VEGF IC50 = 25.26 − 6.20 µg/mL	[72]
	HCT-116 cells in vitro	IC50 = 17.5, 19.2, 14.5 µg/mL	[73]
	mice inoculated with EAC cells in vivo	↓tumor volume, ↓AST, ↓ALT, ↓urea, ↓creatinine, ↓MDA, ↓SOD, ↓CAT Dose = 100 mg/kg	[69]
	HepG2 cells in vitro	↑cytotoxic effect	[74]
	HepG2 cells in vitro	antiproliferative EC50 = 14.72 ± 0.82 mg/mL	[71]
	DMBA-induced carcinogenesis mice in vivo	antioxidant, ↓lipid peroxidation, ↓SOD, ↓CAT, ↓GSH, ↓MDA ↑caspase-3, ↑Beclin-1, ↓Bcl-2	[75]
	N-nitrosodiethylamine-induced hepatocellular carcinogenesis in rats in vivo	↓AST, ↓ALT, ↓ALP, ↓bilirubin, ↓alpha-fetoprotein, ↓MDA, ↓NO, ↓glutathione Dose = 200 mg/mL	[77]
	transplanted EAC cells in mice in vivo	↓tumor growth	[78]
	HCT-116 colon cancer cells in vitro	↓cancer cell growth IC50 = 33.6 − 36.3 µg/mL	[73]
	HCT-116 colon cancer cells in vitro	↓cancer cell growth IC50 = 100 µg/mL	[79]
	HT-29 colon cancer cells in vitro	↓cell proliferation	[80]
	Caco-2 human colon cancer cells in vitro	cell cycle interrupted in the S-phase, ↓cyclin B1 ↓D1 levels	[81]
	Caco-2 and HT-29 cells in vitro	↓proliferation ↓cells in G0/G1	[82]
	HT-29 cells in vitro	↑cytotoxicity IC50 = 2.5 − 5 μg/mL antiproliferative IC50 > 5 μg/mL	[83]
	PANC-1 human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro	↓growth, ↑apoptosis, ↑Bax, ↑caspase-3, ↓Bcl-2 IC50 = 704, 945, 35 µg/mL	[85,86]
Breast cancer	MCF-7, HDF, MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells in vitro	↓cell proliferation IC50 = 0.5, 1.51, 0.48 mg/mL	[87]
	MCF-7 cells in vitro	↓cell growth IC50 = 8.9, 34.9, 33.9 µg/mL	[73]
		IC50 = 31.5 μg/mL	[69]
	MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, T47D breast cancer cells in vitro	antiproliferative, ↑apoptosis, ↑Bax, ↑caspase-3, ↓Blc2, ↑cells in G0/G1 phase, ↑cells in the G2/M phase IC50 = 0.198, 0.693, 0.532 mg/mL	[88]
	MCF-7 cells in vitro	antiproliferative IC50 = 25, 100, 400, 1200 μg/mL	[89]
		↑cytotoxicity IC50 = 4 mg/mL	[71]
		↑apoptosis, ↑ROS, ↑Bax, ↑Bcl-2, ↓CDK4, ↓cyclin E, ↓ cyclin D1, ↑caspase-3	[91]
	T47D human breast ductal cancer, MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma, MCF-12A normal breast cells in vitro	↑cytotoxicity IC50 = 1.2 μg/mL against MCF-7, T47D cells IC50 = 0.6 μg/mL against MCF-12A cells	[90]
Lung cancer	A549 human lung carcinoma cells in vitro	↑cytotoxicity IC50 = 4 mg/mL	[71]
		↑cytotoxicity, ↓NF-κB, ↓E-cadherin, ↓N-cadherin, ↓MMP-2, ↓MMP-9, ↓IL-6, ↓TNF-α, ↓IL-1β	[93]
Urogenital cancers	T24 human bladder carcinoma cells in vitro	antiproliferative ↑apoptosis IC50 > 20 µg/mL	[96]
	DU145 human prostate cancer cells in vitro	↑apoptosis, ↑Bax, ↑caspase-3, ↓Blc2	[97]
	HeLa human cervical adenocarcinoma cells in vitro	↑cytotoxicity, ↓cell growth IC50 = 4 mg/mL	[71]
Skin cancer	HaCaT cells in vitro	↓ cell growth, ↑caspases-3/8/9, ↑Bax, ↑PARP, ↓Bcl2, ↓NF-κB ↑G0/G1 cell cycle arrest IC50 = 142.45 μg/mL	[98]
Leukemia	NALM-6, KG-1 acute leukemia cells in vitro	↑apoptosis, ↑caspase-3 IC50 = 0.388 − 0.159 mg/mL	[100]

Symbols: ↑ increase, ↓ decrease.