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Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms
Considered as the second deadliest disease globally, cancer has captured the attention of researchers who have been trying with perseverance to decode its hidden aspects, to find new prognosis methods, and to develop better and more effective treatments. Plants have continuously offered an excess of...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6155614/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28208712 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules22020250 |
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author | Habli, Zeina Toumieh, Georgio Fatfat, Maamoun Rahal, Omar Nasser Gali-Muhtasib, Hala |
author_facet | Habli, Zeina Toumieh, Georgio Fatfat, Maamoun Rahal, Omar Nasser Gali-Muhtasib, Hala |
author_sort | Habli, Zeina |
collection | PubMed |
description | Considered as the second deadliest disease globally, cancer has captured the attention of researchers who have been trying with perseverance to decode its hidden aspects, to find new prognosis methods, and to develop better and more effective treatments. Plants have continuously offered an excess of unique secondary metabolites with remarkable biological applications. Alkaloids, one of the most abundant metabolites, constitute a large conglomerate of basic heterocyclic nitrogen-containing natural compounds which are normally produced by plants as toxic substances. Out of the 27,000 different alkaloids, more than 17,000 have displayed diversified pharmacological properties including anticancer activities. These metabolites have been classified either according to their chemical structures or their taxonomic origin. None of the researched alkaloids have been classified according to their molecular mechanism of action against cancer. In fact, only a fraction of the tremendous number of anticancer alkaloids has been copiously mentioned in journals. Here, we aim to provide a summary of the literature on some of the promising anticancer alkaloids that have not been well discussed previously and to classify them according to their molecular mechanisms of action. This review will provide a better understanding of the anticancer mechanisms of these promising natural products that are a rich reservoir for drug discovery. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6155614 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61556142018-11-13 Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms Habli, Zeina Toumieh, Georgio Fatfat, Maamoun Rahal, Omar Nasser Gali-Muhtasib, Hala Molecules Review Considered as the second deadliest disease globally, cancer has captured the attention of researchers who have been trying with perseverance to decode its hidden aspects, to find new prognosis methods, and to develop better and more effective treatments. Plants have continuously offered an excess of unique secondary metabolites with remarkable biological applications. Alkaloids, one of the most abundant metabolites, constitute a large conglomerate of basic heterocyclic nitrogen-containing natural compounds which are normally produced by plants as toxic substances. Out of the 27,000 different alkaloids, more than 17,000 have displayed diversified pharmacological properties including anticancer activities. These metabolites have been classified either according to their chemical structures or their taxonomic origin. None of the researched alkaloids have been classified according to their molecular mechanism of action against cancer. In fact, only a fraction of the tremendous number of anticancer alkaloids has been copiously mentioned in journals. Here, we aim to provide a summary of the literature on some of the promising anticancer alkaloids that have not been well discussed previously and to classify them according to their molecular mechanisms of action. This review will provide a better understanding of the anticancer mechanisms of these promising natural products that are a rich reservoir for drug discovery. MDPI 2017-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6155614/ /pubmed/28208712 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules22020250 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Habli, Zeina Toumieh, Georgio Fatfat, Maamoun Rahal, Omar Nasser Gali-Muhtasib, Hala Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms |
title | Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms |
title_full | Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms |
title_fullStr | Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms |
title_full_unstemmed | Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms |
title_short | Emerging Cytotoxic Alkaloids in the Battle against Cancer: Overview of Molecular Mechanisms |
title_sort | emerging cytotoxic alkaloids in the battle against cancer: overview of molecular mechanisms |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6155614/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28208712 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules22020250 |
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