Therapeutic Potential of Certain Terpenoids as Anticancer Agents: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Cancer is a life-threatening disease and is considered to be among the leading causes of death worldwide. Chemoresistance, severe toxicity, relapse and metastasis are the major obstacles in cancer therapy. Therefore, introducing new therapeutic agents for cancer remains a priority to increase the range of effective treatments. Terpenoids, a large group of secondary metabolites, are derived from plant sources and are composed of several isoprene units. The high diversity of terpenoids has drawn attention to their potential anticancer and pharmacological activities. Some terpenoids exhibit an anticancer effect by triggering various stages of cancer progression, for example, suppressing the early stage of tumorigenesis via induction of cell cycle arrest, inhibiting cancer cell differentiation and activating apoptosis. At the late stage of cancer development, certain terpenoids are able to inhibit angiogenesis and metastasis via modulation of different intracellular signaling pathways. Significant progress in the identification of the mechanism of action and signaling pathways through which terpenoids exert their anticancer effects has been highlighted. Hence, in this review, the anticancer activities of twenty-five terpenoids are discussed in detail. In addition, this review provides insights on the current clinical trials and future directions towards the development of certain terpenoids as potential anticancer agents.

Rosmarinus officinalis and Methylphenidate Exposure Improves Cognition and Depression and Regulates Anxiety-Like Behavior in AlCl3-Induced Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

“…These natural compounds or phytochemicals are largely categorized into alkaloids, terpenoids, and polyphenols, where the terpenoids and polyphenols are the major groups of plant's secondary metabolites, targeting several signaling pathways in the biological system (Zhu et al, 2018). The pharmacological properties of these compounds are due to their distinctive structures that enable them to interact with different key enzymes, receptors, antioxidant systems, and signaling cascades including transcription factors as well as cytokines (Safe et al, 2021;Santos et al, 2021;Kamran et al, 2022). For instance, the antioxidant activity of flavonoids, a subgroup of polyphenols, is correlated with the number of phenolic groups (Glevitzky et al, 2019), whereas anti-inflammatory and antidepressant effects are also associated with polyphenols (Hussain et al, 2016;Jiang et al, 2019).…”

Co-Targeting Tumor Angiogenesis and Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment: A Perspective in Ethnopharmacology

“…Specifically, whatever natural products or chemical derivatives modulating angiogenesis share cardinal pathways that VEGF mediated, such as VEGFR2 pathway in vascular endothelial cells, HIF-1α/VEGF and its upstream transcriptional signaling in cancer cells, we concern and await the emergence of more potential targets for anti-angiogenesis therapy. Although other natural molecules in TCM also performed anti-angiogenesis property, comprising coumarins ( Wu et al, 2020 ), terpenoids ( Kamran et al, 2022 ), polysaccharides ( Li et al, 2021c ), and polyphenols ( Li et al, 2021c ; Marrero et al, 2022 ), they have no distinct difference in mechanisms in comparison with molecules we reported. Recently, angiopoietin (for instance, ang2) inhibition has been implied to be a strategy for overcoming the resistance of VEGF blockers in clinical, while the potential of natural molecules as angiopoietin inhibitors needs further observation ( Parmar and Apte, 2021 ).…”

Nanoscale Technologies in the Fight against COVID-19: From Innovative Nanomaterials to Computer-Aided Discovery of Potential Antiviral Plant-Derived Drugs

“…Many terpenoids exhibit various pharmacological properties, including anti- inflammatory, antitumoral, analgesic, antibacterial, antifungal, and antimalarial properties [ 241 , 242 , 243 ]. Moreover, various studies have also reported the antiviral potential of some of these compounds.…”