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Review
. 2023 Oct;27(19):2841-2863.
doi: 10.1111/jcmm.17936. Epub 2023 Sep 12.

Therapeutic effects of medicinal plants and their constituents on lung cancer, in vitro, in vivo and clinical evidence

Arghavan Memarzia  1   2 , Saeideh Saadat  1   3 , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh  2 , Sepide Behrouz  4 , Gert Folkerts  5 , Mohammad Hossein Boskabady  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Therapeutic effects of medicinal plants and their constituents on lung cancer, in vitro, in vivo and clinical evidence

Arghavan Memarzia et al. J Cell Mol Med. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

The most common type of cancer in the world is lung cancer. Traditional treatments have an important role in cancer therapy. In the present review, the most recent findings on the effects of medicinal plants and their constituents or natural products (NP) in treating lung cancer are discussed. Empirical studies until the end of March 2022 were searched using the appropriate keywords through the databases PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus. The extracts and essential oils tested were all shown to effect lung cancer by several mechanisms including decreased tumour weight and volume, cell viability and modulation of cytokine. Some plant constituents increased expression of apoptotic proteins, the proportion of cells in the G2/M phase and subG0/G1 phase, and Cyt c levels. Also, natural products (NP) activate apoptotic pathways in lung cancer cell including p-JNK, Akt/mTOR, PI3/ AKT\ and Bax, Bcl2, but suppressed AXL phosphorylation. Plant-derived substances altered the cell morphology, reduced cell migration and metastasis, oxidative marker production, p-eIF2α and GRP78, IgG, IgM levels and reduced leukocyte counts, LDH, GGT, 5'NT and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Therefore, medicinal plant extracts and their constituents could have promising therapeutic value for lung cancer, especially if used in combination with ordinary anti-cancer drugs.

Keywords: apoptosis; in vitro; in vivo; lung cancer; medical plants; metastasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flowchart of the selecting studies in the current review.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Anti‐apoptosis, cell death and anti‐cell migration mechanisms of natural products on lung cancer.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Anti‐cell proliferation, anti‐oxidative and anti‐tumour growth mechanisms of natural products on lung cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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