Sea Cucumber Compounds Targeting NF-κB in Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Cancer is a major health problem worldwide and the leading cause of death in many countries. It remains challenging to find anticancer treatments that work efficiently for varying types of cancer cells. Several studies revealed that nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is a family of dimeric transcription factors that induce tumor promotion, progression, and therapeutic resistance, providing evidence that NF-kB may be a promising target for cancer drugs. Some research has found that sea cucumber biocompounds have anticancer properties, but further research is essential to confirm anticancer targets. This manuscript discusses the mechanisms of anticancer targeting the NF-κB signaling pathway induced by sea cucumber-derived compounds. Additional database analysis showed the protein targeted by the compounds involved in several pathways related to the NF-κB network. Moreover, SwissADME predicted druglikeliness properties of the active compounds of sea cucumber. The discussion is expected to provide new insight into the promising potential of these marine natural products for the treatment of many different types of cancers.

Keywords: Drug discovery; nuclear factor kappa B; pharmacokinetics; physicochemical; sea cucumbers.

Figure 1.

Sea cucumber active compounds (green font) might intervene cancer cell growth through EGFR-Pi3 K/AKT dependent NF-κB pathway. The Illustration was Created with BioRender.com application.