Potential Anticancer Properties and Mechanisms of Action of Formononetin

Abstract

Nature, a vast reservoir of pharmacologically active molecules, has been most promising source of drug leads for the cure of various pathological conditions. Formononetin is one of the bioactive isoflavones isolated from different plants mainly from Trifolium pratense, Glycine max, Sophora flavescens, Pycnanthus angolensis, and Astragalus membranaceus. Formononetin has been well-documented for its anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antioxidant properties. Recently anticancer activity of formononetin is widely studied. This review aims to highlight the pharmacological potential of formononetin, thus providing an insight of its status in cancer therapeutics. Formononetin fights progression of cancer via inducing apoptosis, arresting cell cycle, and halting metastasis via targeting various pathways which are generally modulated in several cancers. Although reported data acclaims various biological properties of formononetin, further experimentation on mechanism of its action, medicinal chemistry studies, and preclinical investigations are surely needed to figure out full array of its pharmacological and biological potential.

The pleiotropic role of transcription factor STAT3 in oncogenesis and its targeting through natural products for cancer prevention and therapy

“…Formononetin is an isoflavone from the Trifolium pretense (red clover plant) and Astragalus membranaceus (Huangqi) plants 56,242–244 . Formononetin belongs to a class of 7‐hydroisoflavones which have a substitution of methoxy group at Position 4 242–244 . Formononetin has been reported to exhibit anticancer effects by modulating several oncogenic signaling pathways, such as STAT3, MAPK, NF‐κB, and PI3K/Akt.…”

Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus Bunge): botanical, geographical, and historical aspects to pharmaceutical components and beneficial role

“…Others show that Astragalus polysaccharides induced cell-cycle arrest in 4T1 cells (Park and Park 2018). Jiang et al (2019) reported the anti-cancer activity of formononetin as resulting from mechanisms involving halting metastasis, arresting cell cycle and inducing apoptosis, the IC 50 value of 1 µM for Formononetin against CNE2 (nasopharyngeal cell line) was reported. Wang and Ba (2015), analyzed the chemical composition of Astragali Radix ethanol extract using HPLC and NMR spectroscopy, and identified several compounds including (3R)-8,2'-dihydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxyisoflavan, 7,2'-dihydroxy-3',4'-dimethoxy-isoflavan-7,2'-dioxo-βd-glucoside, uridine, and astragaloside, which induced increase in the apoptosis rate of HepG2 cells, as evaluated by flow cytometry and MTT assay.…”

Lipophagy: A New Perspective of Natural Products in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Treatment

“… 56 Flavonoids Kaempferol Kaempferia galanga Linn. 69 Formononetin Trifolium pratense ; Astragalus membranaceus 71 Extracts of bilberry fruits NA Vaccinium myrtillus L. 72 Quercetin Capparis spinosa L.; Piper Nigrum L. 73 Polyphenols Resveratrol Veratrum grandiflorum 74 Epigallocatechin-3-gallate Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Ktze. 75 Bergamot polyphenol fraction NA Citrus medica L. var.…”