Solasodine, Solamargine and Mixtures of Solasodine Rhamnosides: Pathway to Expansive Clinical Anticancer Therapies

Abstract

Cancer remains a major cause of mortality worldwide. Progresses have been made in the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer, cancer detection, and cancer treatment. Important strides by treating early-stage cancers have resulted in improved outcomes. Despite these achievements, mortality of cancer patients is high and still there is no cure. Some oncologists remain optimistic that cytotoxic chemotherapy will significantly improve cancer survival. However, notwithstanding the use of new and expensive single and more recently, combination drugs, the improvement of the response rates remains very low. In the United States, cancer death rates decreased by a mere 1.4% to 1.8% from 2004 to 2013. Compared to other serious diseases, the improvement of the cancer patient has been disappointingly lagging, and by far, most patients with advanced cancer eventually die of their disease. The need for improved cancer therapies is self-evident. This communication gives an overview of the overwhelming resurgence of solasodine and its glycosides in cancer therapy.

Cytotoxicity Studies of an Ethnobotanically Selected Solanum Pubescens Willd. Against Selected Human Cancer Cell Lines

“…Hence, the present study was focused on the extraction of phytochemicals using five different solvents, tested their potent cytotoxic activity on human liver, colon and breast cancer cell lines and revealed the suitable solvents and plant parts that substantiate the herbal drug encounter for cancer therapy from S. pubescens. A thought-provoking fact was found reported [33] on solasodine and other related alkaloids that trigger against the cancer cell and death by the lysosomal-mitochondrial mediated apoptosis pathway and the death receptor-mediated apoptosis pathway. Furthermore, the carbohydrate moiety of these steroidal alkaloids has anti-metastatic properties and plays a key role in expressing antineoplastic actions and also a class of clinically important multidrug-resistance with cancer cells.…”

Solasodine Glycosides from the Eggplant in a Topical Cream Psorend<sup>BEC</sup> Are Effective against Psoriasis

“…Since then, biologics have become available that affect the immune system, resulting in the reduction of inflammation and consequently slow down the growth of skin cells. In that context, it is interesting that naturally occurring BEC exerts a positive outcome on the immune system [21] and also affects the proliferation of unwanted cells [10].…”

“…In 1987 it was first reported that BEC consisted of a mixture of solasodine glycosides, of which solamargine and solasonine are the major components. BEC has high antineoplastic efficacy and low toxicity when treating a wide variety of cancers [10].…”

“…Psorend BEC was able to eliminate recalcitrant psoriasis. The same solasodine glycosides, but in a different topical cream formulation, Curaderm BEC5 , is effective against a wide variety of non-melanoma skin cancers [10], including recalcitrant basal cell carcinomas [23].…”

“…Since then, hundreds of independently published articles have confirmed and elaborated on the original findings, to the extent, that these compounds are the ongoing hope for treating terminal tumours [10]. In addition, currently, there is an established effective topical cream formulation Curaderm for the treatment of skin cancers [10] [11].…”