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Natural Products in Anticancer Therapy

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 602

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Via del Giochetto, 06126 Perugia, Italy
Interests: cancer chemoprevention; nutrition; olive oil; polyphenols; natural bioactive compounds; antioxidants; oxidative stress; genotoxicity; mutagenicity; apoptosis; cell cycle regulation
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

After cardiovascular diseases, cancer is the second-leading cause of death among non-communicable diseases. Its incidence and mortality are increasing worldwide due to an aging population. Therefore, this disease remains a major public health concern worldwide. Although considerable progress has been made in recent years and several cancer treatment options are now available, their success is often unsatisfactory and accompanied by significant side effects. Indeed, both chemotherapy and small-molecule targeted therapy (SMTT) can cause adverse reactions in normal cells, resulting in undesirable side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, fatigue, pain, hypertension, mucositis, alopecia, neuropathy, anemia, emesis, baldness, and myelosuppression. In addition, despite the effectiveness of these drugs in the early phase of the disease, they are often associated with multidrug resistance (MDR), a phenomenon responsible for most of the deaths of cancer patients undergoing treatment. Therefore, further efforts are needed to discover new molecules with better therapeutic properties, higher efficacy, and lower toxicity. Phytochemicals, plant derivatives, or natural products have shown remarkable biological properties capable of interfering with the carcinogenesis process through different molecular mechanisms, including cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. These effects make it possible to use such natural products as alternative therapeutic or adjuvant treatments with better efficacy and lower toxicity.

This Special Issue aims to identify new plant-derived molecules that are able to prevent and/or suppress the carcinogenesis process at non-toxic doses. Particular emphasis will be given to the results on the bioavailability and anticancer efficacy of natural compounds obtained on animal models of carcinogenesis.

Dr. Roberto Fabiani
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at mdpi.longhoe.net by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • natural products
  • bioactive anti‑tumor agents
  • phytochemicals
  • anticancer plants
  • chemotherapy
  • targeted therapy

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 5269 KiB  
Article
Apigenin’s Modulation of Doxorubicin Efficacy in Breast Cancer
by Aleksandra Golonko, Adam Jan Olichwier, Agata Szklaruk, Adam Paszko, Renata Świsłocka, Łukasz Szczerbiński and Włodzimierz Lewandowski
Molecules 2024, 29(11), 2603; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29112603 - 1 Jun 2024
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Abstract
Apigenin, a naturally derived flavonoid, is increasingly being acknowledged for its potential therapeutic applications, especially in oncology. This research explores apigenin’s capacity to modulate cancer cell viability, emphasizing its roles beyond its minimal antioxidant activity attributed to its basic molecular structure devoid of [...] Read more.
Apigenin, a naturally derived flavonoid, is increasingly being acknowledged for its potential therapeutic applications, especially in oncology. This research explores apigenin’s capacity to modulate cancer cell viability, emphasizing its roles beyond its minimal antioxidant activity attributed to its basic molecular structure devoid of hydroxyl groups. We investigated apigenin’s effects on two breast cancer cell lines, estrogen-dependent MCF-7 and non-estrogen-dependent MDA-MB-231 cells. Our findings reveal that apigenin exerts a dose-dependent cytotoxic and anti-migratory impact on these cells. Interestingly, both apigenin and doxorubicin—a standard chemotherapeutic agent—induced lipid droplet accumulation in a dose-dependent manner in MDA-MB-231 cells. This phenomenon was absent in MCF-7 cells and not evident when doxorubicin and apigenin were used concurrently, suggesting distinct cellular responses to these treatments that imply that their synergistic effects might be mediated through mechanisms unrelated to lipid metabolism. A further chemoinformatics analysis indicated that apigenin and doxorubicin might interact primarily at the level of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter proteins, with potential indirect influences from the AKT and MYC signaling pathways. These results highlight the importance of understanding the nuanced interactions between apigenin and conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, as they could lead to more effective strategies for cancer treatment. This study underscores apigenin’s potential as a modulator of cancer cell dynamics through mechanisms independent of its direct antioxidant effects, thereby contributing to the development of flavonoid-based adjunct therapies in cancer management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Products in Anticancer Therapy)
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