An updated pharmacological insight into calotropin as a potential therapeutic agent in cancer
Rajkovic J. Novakovic R. Grujic-Milanovic J. Ydyrys A. Ablaikhanova N. Calina D. Sharifi-Rad J. Al-Omari B.
2023Frontiers Media S.A.
Frontiers in Pharmacology
2023#14
Calotropin is a pharmacologically active compound isolated from milkweed plants like Calotropis procera, Calotropis gigantea, and Asclepias currasavica that belong to the Asclepiadaceae family. All of these plants are recognised as medical traditional plants used in Asian countries. Calotropin is identified as a highly potent cardenolide that has a similar chemical structure to cardiac glycosides (such as digoxin and digitoxin). During the last few years, cytotoxic and antitumor effects of cardenolides glycosides have been reported more frequently. Among cardenolides, calotropin is identified as the most promising agent. In this updated and comprehensive review, we aimed to analyze and discuss the specific mechanisms and molecular targets of calotropin in cancer treatment to open new perspectives for the adjuvant treatment of different types of cancer. The effects of calotropin on cancer have been extensively studied in preclinical pharmacological studies in vitro using cancer cell lines and in vivo in experimental animal models that have targeted antitumor mechanisms and anticancer signaling pathways. The analyzed information from the specialized literature was obtained from scientific databases until December 2022, mainly from PubMed/MedLine, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases using specific MeSH search terms. The results of our analysis demonstrate that calotropin can be a potential chemotherapeutic/chemopreventive adjunctive agent in cancer pharmacotherapeutic management. Copyright
anticancer , apoptosis , calotropin , cytotoxicity , molecular targets , signaling pathways
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Institute for Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Institute for Medical Research, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Biomedical Research Centre, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Department of Biophysics, Biomedicine and Neuroscience, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Craiova, Romania
Facultad de Medicina, Universidad del Azuay, Cuenca, Ecuador
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Institute for Pharmacology
Institute for Medical Research
Biomedical Research Centre
Department of Biophysics
Department of Clinical Pharmacy
Facultad de Medicina
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health
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