Current Medicinal Chemistry
Current Medicinal Chemistry
3 years ago

The Use of Naphthoquinones and Furano-naphthoquinones as Anti-invasive Agents.

Sze, Chik, Tsang, Zhang
Cancer is a leading cause of mortality in the world and metastasis is to blame. Invasion is the initial step of metastasis. Therapies targeting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cancer stem cells (CSCs) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathways can reduce stemness of cancer cells and thus inhibit cancer invasion. A large number of anti-cancer naphthoquinones (NQs) can target cancer invasion by acting on EMT, CSCs and STAT3 signaling. Furano-naphthoquinones (FNQs) belong to a class of NQ derivatives commonly characterized by a naphthoquinone fused with a furano ring. A study indicated that the corporation of the furano ring improved the anticancer potency as compared to the other classes of NQs. BBI608, a natural FNQ, which can be found in the woods or barks of several Tabebuia species, has entered phases I and II clinical trials. It has been regarded as a potential candidate for new-generation lead compound acting directly on CSCs to overcome the chemotherapy resistance. Apart from the natural plant sources, there are a number of synthetic FNQ derivatives that are effective in reducing stemness of cancer cells and thus are anti-invasive. In this review, the anti-invasion mechanisms of NQs and the more powerful FNQs, together with their natural origins, synthetic derivatives as well as their synthetic routes are discussed.

Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.2174/0929867324666171006131927

DOI: 10.2174/0929867324666171006131927

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.