Cytotoxic and Antitumoral Activities of Compounds Isolated from Cucurbitaceae Plants

Abstract

The WHO says that annual cases of cancer will increase from 14 million in 2012 to 22 million in the next two decades. Cancer is the second cause of death in the world; in 2015, it caused 8.8 million deaths. On the other hand, it is necessary to consider that 70% of the total deaths due to this disease occur in developing countries, who have the least resources to acquire the drugs of choice for the treatment of this disease. Although there are treatments and these are effective, there are currently cases of resistance to drugs used to treat this disease, which has led to the search for new sources of drugs or compounds effective against the cancer being active; plants are the possible sources to achieve this. Cucurbitaceae is a family of plants widely distributed on the planet which has been used traditionally for the treatment of this disease and from they have been isolated different cucurbitanes. These compounds possess a wide biological activity, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, or cytotoxic and antitumoral effects. The aim of this review is to present 51 cucurbitacin compounds and 2 with different structures isolated from Cucurbitaceae plants with cytotoxic or antitumoral activity.

Isolation and characterization of anti-tumor compounds from ethyl acetate extract of Rumex japonicus houtt roots and their cytotoxic effects

“…Four compounds: compound 2 (chrysophanol), 7 (β-sitosterol), 9 (sucrose), and 10 (dibutyl phthalate) exhibited highly significant and potent antitumor activity (>100 μM) for HepG2 cell lines whereas, compounds 3 (aloe emodin), 1 (emodin), and 8 (3β-acetoxy-28-hydroxyurs-12-ene) demonstrated antitumor activities of 93.4 μM, 90.8 μM and 86.4 μM, respectively. The possible mechanism for apoptotic effects of anticancer compounds might be ascribed to their modification ability of mitochondrial transmembrane potential and transcriptional activity by means of genetic or nuclear factors and owing to probable inhibition or activation of anti-or proapoptotic proteins (Méndez-Cuesta et al, 2019).…”

Natural Compounds in Sex Hormone-Dependent Cancers: The Role of Triterpenes as Therapeutic Agents

“…Malignant diseases or cancers are the cause of a high number of deaths worldwide each year and are characterized by the abnormal, uncontrolled division of cells due to inherited or environmental genetic cellular changes. Cancer can be treated by multiple approaches such as surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, all with severe side effects and the potential to induce tumor resistance; the use of plant-derived compounds may represent an appealing alternative due to their mild and well-tolerated biological effects and last but not least their affordable cost ( 1 ). Actually, plant-derived compounds were the starting point for numerous semisynthetic drugs or supplements currently used in cancer treatment; literature surveys reveal that only about one fifth of all commercially anticancer drugs are in fact obtained completely through chemical synthesis ( 2 ).…”

Anti-Tumor and Anti-Inflammatory Activity In Vivo of Apodanthera congestiflora Cogn. (Cucurbitaceae)

“…This group of secondary metabolites has great chemical and biological relevance, as it presents a vast structural diversity and pharmacological potential. The anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antiulcerogenic, analgesic, antiparasitic and antitumor properties can be cited [ 4 , 5 ].…”

“…The pioneering studies that relate cucurbitacins to an anti-tumor potential date from the 1960s, which made the class known for presenting this property. This fact can support the use of plants that contain them for various purposes that involve, directly or indirectly, cell death [ 4 , 5 ]. According to Ali et al (2019) [ 7 ], cucurbitacins was able to treat cancers such as human lung adenocarcinoma, glioblastoma multiform, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.…”