Title : Systematic review on the anti-cancer effect of Chinese medicines in metabolomics perspective
Abstract:
s one of the most prevalent diseases all over the world, cancer is a complex disease with multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. The mortality rate of cancer is equal to its incidence rate and the prognosis is poor. So far, due to serious side effects and increasing drug resistance, most chemotherapeutic agents for cancer are ineffective. Therefore, it is urgently needed for us to develop novel therapeutic strategies. The pure compounds, herb extracts and formulations from Chinese Medicine has been widely used in clinic not only in China but also throughout the world. Numerous successful medical record in treating cancer with Chinese Medicine have indicated it as an excellent source for cancer treatment as a complementary and alternative approach. However, due to its unique medical system with multicomponent nature, the underlying mechanisms how it works remain to be fully elucidated. Metabolic reprogramming is one of hallmarks to cancer. To support their high proliferation rates, cancer cells own a substantially unique metabolic phenotype. Metabolism-targeting therapies for cancer can be highly specific and effective, which are becoming a new therapeutics and drawing researchers’ great attention. Metabolomics, one of the “Omics”, systematically investigates the small molecule metabolites and provide us novel insights into dynamically metabolic responses of living systems. Besides, in accordance with the holistic perspective of Chinese medicines, metabolomics opens up a unique and novel insight into efficacy evaluation and action mechanism exploration of Chinese medicines as adjuvant therapies for cancer prevention and treatment. In this review, we systematically reviewed recent studies on the potential of metabolic treatment with pure compounds, herb extracts and formulations from Chinese medicines from the following aspects: glucose, lipid, amino acid, nucleotide metabolism and other altered metabolisms. The trends of future development of metabolism-targeting anti-cancer therapies were also discussed. Overall, the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanism of anti-cancer Chinese Medicine in metabolomics perspective will provide us a new insight to develop novel therapeutics for cancer treatment.
