Recent updates and future perspectives about amygdalin as a potential anticancer agent: A review

Abstract

The overall incidence of cancer is increasing in recent years. Despite advances in various comprehensive treatments, the mortality of advanced malignant tumors remains at a high level. Numerous pharmacological studies have confirmed that many Chinese herbal medicines possess remarkable antitumor activities. Amygdalin, mainly existing in bitter almond, is reported to have antitumor properties in addition to the antioxidative, antibacterial, anti‐inflammatory and immunoregulatory activities. This article summarizes the structural characteristics of amygdalin, its antitumor mechanisms, and recent progress and achievement in the research of amygdalin, hoping that it could provide theoretical clues for exploring the clinical value of amygdalin against tumors. Amygdalin is known to have an antitumor effect in solid tumors such as lung cancer, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma by affecting cell cycle, inducing apoptosis and cytotoxicity, and regulating immune function. Further research is needed to elucidate the pharmacological mechanisms of amygdalin in terms of the optimal dosage, the feasibility of combined use of amygdalin with other antitumor drugs, and even artificial synthesis of the active components in amygdalin, for the sake of enhancing its antitumor activities and reducing its adverse effects for clinical use.

Exploring active ingredients and function mechanisms of Ephedra-bitter almond for prevention and treatment of Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on network pharmacology

“…Therefore, in order to obtain more accurate results, these compounds were also included in the candidate compounds for further analysis. For instance, amygdalin with relatively small OB value was retained for further analysis since it was an active ingredient of bitter almond [ 39 ]. It has been reported that amygdalin may play a protective effect on acute lung injury by inhibiting NF-κB and NLRP3 signal pathways [ 40 ].…”

Oridonin inhibits the migration and epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition of small cell lung cancer cells by suppressing FAK‐ERK1/2 signalling pathway

“…Enhanced cell migration is an important process for the metastasis of cancer cells and also a critical enhancing factor resulting in high mortality . As shown by some recent studies, some traditional Chinese medicines have been identified as effective anticancer drugs for various cancers ; however, the specific protective mechanisms of different herbal medicines are not the same. R rubescens has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for oesophageal cancer treatment in China for a long time .…”

Genotoxic and antigenotoxic potential of amygdalin on isolated human lymphocytes by the comet assay

“…Nowadays, it is also known to be applied for the prevention and treatment of migraine, hypertonia, chronic inflammation, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, leprosy, diabetes, colorectal cancer, and vitiligo (Halenár, Medvedová, Maruniaková, Packová, & Kolesárová, 2014;Todorova et al, 2017;Yan, Tong, Li, & Lou, 2006). More studies are confirming the anticancer efficacy of amygdalin on different cancer cells such as prostate (Chang et al, 2006;Makarević et al, 2016), cervical (Chen et al, 2013), breast (Lee & Moon, 2016), lung (Qian, Xie, Wang, & Qian, 2015), and colon (Park et al, 2005) (Shi et al, 2019). However, amygdalin has not yet received FDA approval for therapeutic use in the United States owing to there is not enough clinical validation, accordingly, controversies about the anticancer activity of the amygdalin continuous (Hwang, Lee, Kim, Shim, & Hahm, 2008;Kolesar et al, 2018).…”