Oncopreventive and Oncotherapeutic Potential of Licorice Chalcone Compounds: Molecular Insights

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Licorice is an important traditional Chinese medicine commonly used in clinical practice and contains more than 300 flavonoids. Chalcone is one of the main types of flavonoids with a wide range of biological functions and pharmacological activities. In the anticancer research, chalcone compounds have excellent performance. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to summarize the biosynthetic pathway and pharmacokinetics of chalcone from licorice and provide evidence for the anticancer effects of chalcone and the underlying mechanisms involved. METHOD: For this review, the following databases were consulted: the PubMed Database (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (http://www.cnki.net), National Science and Technology Library (http://www.nstl.gov.cn/), Wanfang Data (http://www.wanfangdata.com.cn/), and the Web of Science Database (http://apps.webofknowledge.com/). RESULTS: To date, about 56 chalcones have been isolated and identified from licorice, 14 of which have antitumor effects. These chalcones have a wide range of biological activities and can inhibit the viability, proliferation, and migration of cancer cells by blocking the cancer cell cycle, thus inducing apoptosis and autophagy. However, the molecular mechanism of the anticancer effects of chalcone is not fully understood. CONCLUSION: In this paper, the molecular mechanism of chalcone regulating different types of cancer is reviewed in detail from the biosynthetic pathway. This comprehensive review article summarizes the biosynthetic pathway and pharmacokinetics of chalcone from the traditional Chinese medicine licorice and provides evidence for the potential anticancer effects of chalcone and the respective mechanisms of action. This paper also provides a basis for structural modification, biosynthesis, and new drug development of chalcone compounds in Glycyrrhiza uralensis.