Active Components of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Material for Multiple Myeloma: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Abstract

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy characterized by clonal expansion of plasma cells in bone marrow, leading to the overproduction of monoclonal immunoglobulins. The clinical manifestations resulting from monoclonal proteins and malignant cells include signs of end-organ damage, such as hypercalcemia, renal failure, anemia, and bone lesions. Despite improvement in the survival of MM patients with use of myeloma-targeted and immunomodulatory therapies, MM remains an incurable disease. Moreover, patients with relapsed or refractory MM show poor survival outcomes. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of traditional Chinese medicinal materials (TCMMs) for management of a wide spectrum of diseases. The bioactive ingredients derived from TCMMs hold great potential for the development of anticancer drugs. Here we summarize the evidence of the pharmacological effects of the active components in TCMMs on MM, including curcumin, resveratrol, baicalein, berberine, bufalin, cinobufagin, gambogic acid, ginsenoside, icariin, daidzin, formononetin, polysaccharides extracts from Hedyotis difus, and scutellarein. Available evidence indicates that the anti-MM effects of these bioactive ingredients are mediated via regulation of proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, cell cycle, osteogenic differentiation, and drug resistance. In the future, the underlying mechanisms of the anti-MM effects of these components should be further investigated. Large-scale and well-designed clinical trials are also required to validate the efficacy of these bioactive constituents for MM.

Molecular Basis and Potential Molecular Mechanisms of Action in Natural Products as Therapeutic Agents Towards Multiple Myeloma

“…Activates apoptosis through inducing oxidative stress. 82,30,78 © 2023 the authors. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Sinomenine Selectively induces apoptosis in primary MM cells and MM cell lines due to inhibiting the IL-6-induced activation of STAT3.…”

The role and mechanism of TCM in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases

“…The results indicated that total flavonoids have a role in regulating T cell apoptosis and related genes in corticosterone rats ( Liu et al, 2020 ). The active components found in Chinese herbs induce apoptosis by regulating apoptotic protein families such as the Bcl-2 family and the Caspase family, as well as impacting apoptosis signaling pathways like the p53 pathway and the NF-κB pathway ( Yu et al, 2022 ).…”

Research Progress of Natural Small-Molecule Compounds Related to Tumor Differentiation

“…Baicalein is a coumarin-like derivative extracted from Chinese herbs that induces early osteoblast differentiation through activation of the MAP kinase/NF-κB signaling pathway, and this activation is associated with increased expression of osteoblast differentiation markers. In addition, baicalin induced the differentiation of MC3T3-E1 in mouse osteoblasts [ 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 ]. Resveratrol (RSV) is a natural compound present in various plant species that reduces the growth of myeloma cell lines (RPMI 8226 and OPM-2) in a dose-dependent manner and inhibits ligand-receptor activator (RANKL)-induced osteoclast differentiation.…”