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Anticancer properties of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds against breast cancer: a review on recent investigations

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Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common and recurring diseases and the second leading cause of death in women. Despite prevention, diagnostics, and therapeutic options such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the number of occurrences increases every year. Therefore, novel therapeutic drugs targeting specifically different checkpoints should be developed against breast cancer. Among drugs that can be developed to treat breast cancer, natural products, such as plant-derived compounds, showed significant anti-breast cancer properties. These substances belong to different chemical classes such as flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolic acids, and alkaloids. They exert their in vitro and in vivo cytotoxic activities against breast cancer cell lines via different mechanisms, including the inhibition of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways, the arrest of the cell cycle, and the activation of autophagy. Moreover, they also exhibit anti-angiogenesis and antimetastatic action. Moreover, chemoprevention effects of these bioactive compounds were signaled only for certain drugs. Therefore, the aim of this review is to highlight the pharmacological actions of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds on breast cancer. Moreover, the role of these substances in breast cancer chemoprevention was also discussed.

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Data availability

All data presented herein are constant with the published literature.

Abbreviations

APC:

Antigen-presenting cell

ATM:

Ataxia telangiectasia mutated

ACS:

American Chemical Society

BC:

Breast cancer

MAPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

NF-κB:

Nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells

PTEN:

Phosphate toxic epidermal necrolysis

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

TNF:

Tumor necrosis factor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Eastern Medicine, Faculty of Medical Science, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Idrees Khan, Muhammad Akram & Sabira Sultana

  2. Laboratory of Human Pathologies Biology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco

    Abdelhakim Bouyahya

  3. Microbial Biotechnology and Bioactive Molecules Laboratory, Sciences and Technologies Faculty, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Imouzzer Road, P.O. Box-2002, Fez, Morocco

    Naoufal E. L. Hachlafi

  4. Laboratory of Physiology, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Sciences Dhar El Mahraz, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Pharmacology & Environmental Health, Fez, Morocco

    Naoual El Menyiy

  5. Biochemistry and Physiology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Selcuk University, Campus, Konya, Turkey

    Gokhan Zengin

  6. K.G. Razumovsky Moscow State University of Technologies and Management (the First Cossack University), 73 Zemlyanoy Val, Moscow, 109004, Russian Federation

    Lilya Ponomareva & Mohammad Ali Shariati

  7. Department of Biochemistry, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Nigeria

    Oluwafemi Adeleke Ojo & Tobiloba Christiana Elebiyo

  8. Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 5, 35131, Padova, Italy

    Stefano Dall’Acqua

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Conceptualization: MIK, AB, NEH; methodology: NEM, MA, SS; formal analysis and investigation: GZ, LP, MAS, OAO, SD, TCE; writing – original draft preparation: MIK, AB; writing – review and editing: AB, NEH, NEM; funding acquisition: AB; resources: AB, SS; supervision: GZ, SD.

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Khan, M.I., Bouyahya, A., Hachlafi, N.E.L. et al. Anticancer properties of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds against breast cancer: a review on recent investigations. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 24411–24444 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17795-7

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