Research progress in multi-targeted anti-tumor natural products / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

Natural products and their derivatives are important components of anti-tumor drugs. Currently, anti-tumor drugs derived from natural products which are in clinical practice are mainly conventional cytotoxic or molecularly targeted drugs. Their application is limited by drug-related side effects and drug resistance. Recent studies have shown that anti-tumor natural products often act on multiple targets in tumor cells and in turn interfere with multiple processes in tumorigenesis and development. As tumor is a systemic disease induced by multiple factors, multi-targeted natural products possess unique potential in tumor therapy. However, the targets and mechanisms of the discovered multi-targeted antitumor natural products remain elusive, which limits their further development and application. This review summarized the research progress in the mechanism of action, target identification, and structure optimization of multi-targeted anti-tumor natural products exemplified by a few typical compounds. The research and development of these agents have also been proposed.