Phytochemistry and pharmacogenomics of natural products derived from traditional chinese medicine and chinese materia medica with activity against tumor cells

Abstract

The cure from cancer is still not a reality for all patients, which is mainly due to the limitations of chemotherapy (e.g., drug resistance and toxicity). Apart from the highthroughput screening of synthetic chemical libraries, natural products represent attractive alternatives for drug development. We have done a systematic bioactivitybased screening of natural products derived from medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine. Plant extracts with growth-inhibitory activity against tumor cells have been fractionated by chromatographic techniques. We have isolated the bioactive compounds and elucidated the chemical structures by nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. By this strategy, we identified 25-O-acetyl-23,24-dihydro-cucurbitacin F as a cytotoxic constituent of Quisqualis indica. Another promising compound identified by this approach was miltirone from Salvia miltiorrhiza. The IC 50 values for miltirone of 60 National Cancer Institute cell lines were associated with the microarray-based expression of 9,706 genes. By COMPARE and hierarchical cluster analyses, candidate genes were identified, which significantly predicted sensitivity or resistance of cell lines to miltirone. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008; 7(1):152-61]

Functional divergence of diterpene syntheses in the medicinal plant Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge

“…These are highly bioactive. For example, tanshinone IIA exerts vasorelaxative activity, has antiarrhythmic effects, provides protection against ischemia reperfusion injury Gao et al, 2008;Sun et al, 2008), and exhibits anticancer activities (Efferth et al, 2008;Lee et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008;Gong et al, 2011). In addition, tanshinones have been reported to have a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities against various plant pathogens, including rice (Oryza sativa) blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (Zhao et al, 2011).…”

Pharmacological induction of leukotriene B4-12-hydroxydehydrogenase suppresses the oncogenic transformation of human hepatoma HepG2 cells

“…Herbal medicines are an important resource of botanical compounds that possess anticancer and chemopreventive properties against various cancers (19)(20)(21). For example, Radix Paeoniae Rubrae and Radix Astragali are often prescribed as anticancer therapy in traditional Chinese medicine.…”

Efficacy and mechanisms of action of traditional Chinese medicines for treating asthma and allergy

“…Although herbal products contain many constituents, only a few compounds are responsible for the physiological effects. The development of modern chromatographic techniques, such as HPLC, together with mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), makes isolation and purification of chemical constituents from complex mixtures feasible (53)(54)(55). Recently a phytochemical database of Chinese herbal constituents and bioactive plant components was established (17).…”