For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
23
views
218
references
 Top references
cited by
47
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      191
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Saponins from Chinese Medicines as Anticancer Agents

      review-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Saponins are glycosides with triterpenoid or spirostane aglycones that demonstrate various pharmacological effects against mammalian diseases. To promote the research and development of anticancer agents from saponins, this review focuses on the anticancer properties of several typical naturally derived triterpenoid saponins (ginsenosides and saikosaponins) and steroid saponins (dioscin, polyphyllin, and timosaponin) isolated from Chinese medicines. These saponins exhibit in vitro and in vivo anticancer effects, such as anti-proliferation, anti-metastasis, anti-angiogenesis, anti-multidrug resistance, and autophagy regulation actions. In addition, related signaling pathways and target proteins involved in the anticancer effects of saponins are also summarized in this work.

          Related collections

          Most cited references218

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          ANTIVIRAL EFFECTS OF SAIKOSAPONINS ON HUMAN CORONAVIRUS 229E IN VITRO

          Pei‐Win Cheng, Lean-Teik Ng, Lien-Chai Chiang … (2006)
          SUMMARY 1 Saikosaponins represent a group of oleanane derivatives, usually as glucosides, that are found in a number of plant families. Saikosaponins isolated from medicinal plants such as Bupleurum spp., Heteromorpha spp. and Scrophularia scorodonia have been reported to possess various biological activities, specifically antihepatitis, antinephritis, antihepatoma, anti‐inflammation, immunomodulation and antibacterial effects. 2 The aim of the present study was to examine the anticoronaviral activity of saikosaponins (A, B2, C and D) and their mode of action. Using the 2,3‐bis[2‐methoxy‐4‐nitro‐5‐sulfophenyl]‐5‐[(phenylamino) carbonyl‐2H‐tetrazolium hydroxide] (XTT) assay, results showed that all saikosaponins tested demonstrated antiviral activity at concentrations of 0.25–25 µmol/L, with the strongest activity being noted for saikosaponin B2 (IC50 = 1.7 ± 0.1 µmol/L). Interestingly, both saikosaponins A (50% cellular cytotoxicity (CC50) concentration = 228.1 ± 3.8 µmol/L; selectivity index (SI) = 26.6) and B2 (CC50 = 383.3 ± 0.2 µmol/L; SI = 221.9) exhibited no cytotoxic effects on target cells at concentrations that achieved antiviral activity. In the time‐of‐addition studies, saikosaponin B2, at 6 µmol/L, significantly inhibited human coronavirus 229E infection following its addition at various time pre‐infection (−4 to −1 h), coinfection (0 h) and post‐infection (1–4 h). Furthermore, saikosaponin B2 also showed an inhibitory effect on viral attachment and penetration. 3 The present results indicate that saikosaponin B2 has potent anticoronaviral activity and that its mode of action possibly involves interference in the early stage of viral replication, such as absorption and penetration of the virus.
          Article 0 comments Cited 111 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Ginsenoside Rh2 induces apoptosis and paraptosis-like cell death in colorectal cancer cells through activation of p53.

            Binghui Li, Jiong Zhao, Chong-Zhi Wang … (2011)
            Ginsenosides are the main bioactive components in American ginseng, a commonly used herb. In this study, we showed that the ginsenoside Rh2 exhibited significantly more potent cell death activity than the ginsenoside Rg3 in HCT116 and SW480 colorectal cancer cells. Cell death induced by Rh2 is mediated in part by the caspase-dependent apoptosis and in part by the caspase-independent paraptosis, a type of cell death that is characterized by the accumulation of cytoplasmic vacuoles. Treatment of cells with Rh2 activated the p53 pathway and significantly increased the levels of the pro-apoptotic regulator, Bax, while decreasing the levels of anti-apoptosis regulator Bcl-2. Removal of p53 significantly blocked Rh2-induced cell death as well as vacuole formation, suggesting that both types of cell death induced by Rh2 are mediated by p53 activity. Furthermore, we show that Rh2 increased ROS levels and activated the NF-κB survival pathway. Blockage of ROS by NAC or catalase inhibited the activation of NF-κB signaling and enhanced Rh2-induced cell death, suggesting that the anti-cancer effect of Rh2 can be enhanced by antioxidants. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
            Article 0 comments Cited 99 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              Alkaloids Isolated from Natural Herbs as the Anticancer Agents

              Jin-Jian Lu, Jiao-Lin Bao, Xiu-Ping Chen … (2012)
              Alkaloids are important chemical compounds that serve as a rich reservoir for drug discovery. Several alkaloids isolated from natural herbs exhibit antiproliferation and antimetastasis effects on various types of cancers both in vitro and in vivo. Alkaloids, such as camptothecin and vinblastine, have already been successfully developed into anticancer drugs. This paper focuses on the naturally derived alkaloids with prospective anticancer properties, such as berberine, evodiamine, matrine, piperine, sanguinarine, and tetrandrine, and summarizes the mechanisms of action of these compounds. Based on the information in the literature that is summarized in this paper, the use of alkaloids as anticancer agents is very promising, but more research and clinical trials are necessary before final recommendations on specific alkaloids can be made.
              Article 0 comments Cited 92 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Derek J. McPhee: Role: Academic Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Molecules
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Molecules
                Journal ID (publisher-id): molecules
                Title: Molecules
                Publisher: MDPI
                ISSN (Electronic): 1420-3049
                Publication date (Electronic): 05 October 2016
                Publication date Collection: October 2016
                Volume: 21
                Issue: 10
                Electronic Location Identifier: 1326
                Affiliations
                [1 ]State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao, China; xuxiaohuang1125@ 123456gmail.com (X.-H.X.); liting19890717@ 123456msn.cn (T.L.); vivfong530@ 123456gmail.com (C.M.V.F.); xpchen@ 123456umac.mo (X.C.); xiaojiachen@ 123456umac.mo (X.-J.C.); ytwang@ 123456umac.mo (Y.-T.W.)
                [2 ]College of Pharmacy, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, China
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: hmq1115@ 123456126.com (M.-Q.H.); jinjianlu@ 123456umac.mo (J.-J.L.); Tel.: +86-591-2286-1135 (M.-Q.H.); +85-388-224-674 (J.-J.L.)
                [†]

                The authors contribute equally to this work.

                Article
                Publisher ID: molecules-21-01326
                DOI: 10.3390/molecules21101326
                PMC ID: 6272920
                PubMed ID: 27782048
                SO-VID: 910d858b-afe3-47b3-bd1a-3415a70a78e6
                Copyright © © 2016 by the authors.
                License:

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                Date received : 15 August 2016
                Date accepted : 30 September 2016
                Categories
                Subject: Review

                Keywords: triterpenoid saponins,steroid saponins,mechanism,target,cancer
                Data availability:
                Keywords: triterpenoid saponins, steroid saponins, mechanism, target, cancer

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content191

                See all similar

                Cited by47

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors2,406

                See all reference authors