Plumbagin demonstrates potential anticancer properties

In this review, researchers from the University of Macau in China discuss the anticancer potential of plumbagin against diverse cancer cells, the molecular mechanisms underlying its antineoplastic effects, and its pharmaceutical applications. The article was published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.

• It has been shown that plumbagin, a bioactive naphthoquinone isolated from three major plant families, namely, Plumbaginaceae, Ebenceae, and Droseraceae, exhibits anticancer potential on various cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo.
• Plumbagin exhibits its antineoplastic effects via multi-channel molecular mechanisms, such as the induction of apoptosis and autophagy, the disruption of the cell cycle, the inhibition of invasion and metastasis, and anti-angiogenesis.
• Plumbagin inhibits the growth of cancer cells mainly through the modulation of the signals of PI3K/Akt/mTOR, AMPK, Ras, and so on.
• They also discuss the pharmaceutical applications of plumbagin in combination with nanocarriers to achieve better therapeutic efficiency. Nanocarriers like liposomes, nanoparticles, microspheres, micelles, and nisosomes are used in cancer treatment.
• They summarized the anticancer study of plumbagin in vivo in this review.

The researchers chose to review the research progress of plumbagin both in the pharmacological and pharmaceutical fields because they believe it can provide some reference for further research on plumbagin.

Journal Reference:

Liu Y, Cai Y, He C, Chen M, Li H. ANTICANCER PROPERTIES AND PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATIONS OF PLUMBAGIN: A REVIEW. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 2017;45(03):423–441. DOI: 10.1142/s0192415x17500264