抗癌中药单体对肿瘤细胞自噬的调控

Effect of Anti-cancer Traditional Chinese Medicine Monomer in Modulating Autophagy of Cancer Cells

自噬是细胞内能量代谢和自我更新的机制,参与细胞诸多生理病理过程,维持机体内稳态。近年来研究发现,自噬与肿瘤的发生发展密切相关,参与调控肿瘤的形成、增殖、转移以及能量代谢等诸多方面。自噬对肿瘤的调控是一个复杂的动态过程,自噬能抑制早期肿瘤的生成,促进晚期肿瘤的发展。目前自噬已成为肿瘤研究领域的新热点,越来越多的研究表明,中草药及其有效成分具有调控肿瘤细胞自噬水平的作用。相对应于自噬在肿瘤发生发展中的复杂角色,抗癌中药有效成分的作用亦具有多面性,或诱导肿瘤细胞发生自噬引起细胞死亡、抑制肿瘤转移;或抑制自噬,增强肿瘤对药物的敏感性;甚至可能在不同肿瘤类型中表现出截然相反的自噬性死亡或保护性自噬作用。目前调控肿瘤自噬水平的中药有效成分研究主要集中在具有抗肿瘤作用的皂苷、生物碱、多酚、黄酮和内酯类化合物,既可以通过诱导细胞自噬达到抗肿瘤的效果,也可以通过抑制细胞自噬发挥抑瘤作用。因此,本文对抗癌中药单体在调节肿瘤细胞自噬方面的研究进展做一综述,有助于研制以自噬为靶点的抗肿瘤药物,为抗肿瘤药物研发提供新方向。

Autophagy is an energy metabolism and self-update mechanism for maintaining the intracellular homeostasis. It is involved in many physiological and pathological processes in cells. The recent studies showed that autophagy is closely related to tumorigenesis and development. It participates in the regulation of tumor formation, proliferation, metastasis and energy metabolism. Autophagy＇s regulatory effect on tumors is a complex dynamic process. Autophagy can impede early cancer development, while promoting advanced tumor progress. In recent years, autophagy has become a new hotspot in the field of cancer research. At present, more and more studies showed that Chinese herbal medicines and their effective components could regulate autophagy in cancer cells. In response to the complex role of autophagy in cancer development, traditional Chinese medicines and their derived anti-cancer compounds also have multiple effects in autophagy regulation. Some of them can cause autophagic cell death, while others may inhibit autophagy metastasis or enhance tumor sensitivity to anti-cancer drugs by restraining autophagy process. They may show distinct effects in autophagic death or protective autophagy in different types of tumor. At present, studies on anticancer compounds with regulatory effect on tumor autophagy mainly focus on saponins, alkaloids, polyphenols, flavone and lactone. Their antitumor effects can be achieved by inducing autophagic death or autophagy suppression. In this paper, the effect and mechanisms of anti-cancer herbal medicines in regulating tumor cell autophagy were reviewed to help develop antitumor herbal drugs targeting autophagy and provide a new direction for anticancer drug development.