Anti-cancer effects of aloe-emodin: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Anthraquinones are a possible treatment option for oncological patients due to their anti-cancer properties. Cancer patients often exhaust a plethora of resources that ultimately fail to provide fully curative measures. Alternative treatments are subsequently sought in the hope of finding a therapeutic remedy. Potential regimens include aloe-emodin and its related derivatives. This review therefore summarizes the effects of aloe-emodin and other aloe components in light of their anti-proliferative and anti-carcinogenic properties. Methods: A systematic search was performed in PubMed for aloe-emodin and cancer in humans. Sixty abstracts of in vitro studies were selected and reviewed with subsequent screening of the full text. Thirty-eight articles were summarized. Results: Aloe-emodin possesses multiple anti-proliferative and anti-carcinogenic properties in a host of human cancer cell lines, with often multiple vital pathways affected by the same molecule. The most notable effects include inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion; cycle arrest; induction of cell death; mitochondrial membrane and redox perturbations; and modulation of immune signaling. The effects of aloe-emodin are not ubiquitous across all cell lines but depend on cell type. Conclusions: On the basis of this systematic review, the multiple consistent effects of aloe-emodin in human-derived cancer cell lines suggest that aloe-emodin is a potential anti-cancer agent that acts on cancer cells in a pleiotropic manner. Relevance for patients: Cancer patients often utilize alternative therapies as a result of suboptimal efficacy of conventional treatments. Aloe-emodin might become a therapeutic option for cancer patients if the basic research is confirmed in clinical trials.

Ligand fishing as a tool to screen natural products with anticancer potential

“…Exploring this potentiality, Cheng et al [120] fabricated a bovine LDH-grafted magnetic particle capable of rapidly screening natural inhibitors from two complex matrices. In it, the authors successfully fished out twelve different ligands of which at least six (emodin, rhein, aloe-emodin, chrysophanic acid, lunatin, and (−)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate) have demonstrated promising activity against cancer cells by other research groups [121][122][123][124][125][126]. However, in this work, the authors did not perform enzymatic assays to check inhibition in the presence of the fished-out ligands, not being possible to confirm their alleged LDH inhibiting potential.…”

Anti-cancer effects of Vernonia amygdalina: A systematic review

“…However, with the improvement of cancer therapeutics, the proportion of cancer patients who survive for more than five years after diagnosis has increased. Nevertheless, cancer therapeutics that are available, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are often associated with adverse side effects and significant morbidity [1,2).…”