An Overview of the Potential Antineoplastic Effects of Casticin

Abstract

Cancer persists as one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide, contributing to approximately 9.6 million deaths per annum in recent years. Despite the numerous advancements in cancer treatment, there is still abundant scope to mitigate recurrence, adverse side effects and toxicities caused by existing pharmaceutical drugs. To achieve this, many phytochemicals from plants and natural products have been tested against cancer cell lines in vivo and in vitro. Likewise, casticin, a flavonoid extracted from the Vitex species, has been isolated from the leaves and seeds of V. trifolia and V. agnus-castus. Casticin possesses a wide range of therapeutic properties, including analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiangiogenic, antiasthmatic and antineoplastic activities. Several studies have been conducted on the anticancer effects of casticin against cancers, including breast, bladder, oral, lung, leukemia and hepatocellular carcinomas. The compound inhibits invasion, migration and proliferation and induces apoptosis (casticin-induced, ROS-mediated and mitochondrial-dependent) and cell cycle arrest (G0/G1, G2/M, etc.) through different signaling pathways, namely the PI3K/Akt, NF-κB, STAT3 and FOXO3a/FoxM1 pathways. This review summarizes the chemo-preventive ability of casticin as an antineoplastic agent against several malignancies.

Casticin protected against neuronal injury and inhibited the TLR4/NF‐κB pathway after middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats

“…It can also inhibit the NF‐κB signaling pathway, thereby reducing arthritis and other inflammation associated to cartilage degeneration 25,26 . In addition, casticin can induce apoptosis in a variety of tumor cells 27 . Casticin could dock to the protein crystal structure of PI3K to inhibit the activity of PI3K; casticin could form hydrogen bonds with PI3K at two amino acid sites, Val854 and Agr770, and a hydrophobic bond with PI3K at Val851.…”

Stevia Genus: Phytochemistry and Biological Activities Update

“…The methoxylated flavonoid casticin ( 88 ) was obtained from S. breviaristata and S. vaga [ 1 ]. Recently, in 2020, a review on the potential antineoplastic effects of casticin was published [ 193 ]. This paper describes that the compound has been studied against cancers, including breast, bladder, oral, lung, leukemia, and hepatocellular carcinomas, and that casticin inhibits the invasion, migration, and proliferation of cancer cells and induces apoptosis (casticin-induced, ROS-mediated, and mitochondrial-dependent) and cell cycle arrest (G0/G1, G2/M, etc.)…”

An overview of the anti-cancer actions of Tanshinones, derived from Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen)

“…For millennia, natural products, including those derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms, have been extracted and synthesized [3,4]. These products can provide prototypes for the synthesis of pharmacologically active agents, specifically, antineoplastic agents [5][6][7][8][9] and have been found to be effective against different cancers [10][11][12][13]. This review analyzes the significance of Tanshinones in cancer prevention as well as treatment in different tumor models.…”