Steroidal saponins: Natural compounds with the potential to reverse tumor drug resistance (Review)

Abstract

Steroidal saponins are a type of natural product that have been widely used in Chinese herbal medicine, with a variety of pharmacological activities, such as antitumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects. Cancer has become a growing global health problem, and drug therapy is currently the most important clinical antitumor treatment. However, drug resistance is a major obstacle to the effectiveness of chemotherapy, resulting in >90% of deaths of patients with cancer receiving conventional chemotherapy. It has been found that steroidal saponins may exert an effect on the reversal of drug resistance in tumor cells by regulating apoptosis, autophagy, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and drug efflux through multiple related signaling pathways. The present study reviews the role and mechanism of steroidal saponins in the treatment of tumor drug resistance, aiming to provide a scientific basis and research ideas for the future development and clinical application of natural steroidal saponins.