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Traditional Chinese medicine reverses cancer multidrug resistance and its mechanism

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Abstract

Chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used clinical treatments among the currently available cancer therapies. However, the phenomenon of Multidrug resistance (MDR) has become a challenge in the treatment process, weakening the impact of chemotherapy. Extensive research on elucidating the development of cancer MDR has identified the following mechanisms that play a critical role in the development of several MDR reversal agents: abnormal expression of cell membrane transporters, adaptation of cancer cells to the microenvironment, regulation of hypoxia, repair of DNA damage and reduction of apoptosis, the enhancement of the EMT process, the existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs), and the abnormal activation of key signaling pathways. However, they failed to demonstrate significant efficacy due to severe side effects during their clinical trials. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) are known to play an important anti-cancer role since they have low toxicity, high efficacy, and safety and can reverse MDR. TCMs reversal agents can be divided into Chinese medicine monomers, synthetic monomers, analogs, or derivatives. Several studies have shown that TCMs can effectively overcome cancer MDR and can be effectively used for treating cancer patients.

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Funding

We thank Dr. Yu Ding for her advice on the contents of the paper. This work was supported by grants to YD by Jilin Province Science and Technology Development Project (20200703014ZP).

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  1. J. Wei and Z. Liu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Animals, College of Animal Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130062, People’s Republic of China

    J. Wei, J. He, Y. Lu, S. He, B. Yuan, J. Zhang & Y. Ding

  2. China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130333, China

    Z. Liu

  3. The Second Clinical School of Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine-Zhuhai Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, Guangdong, China

    Q. Liu

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  1. J. Wei
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  4. Q. Liu
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Wei, J., Liu, Z., He, J. et al. Traditional Chinese medicine reverses cancer multidrug resistance and its mechanism. Clin Transl Oncol 24, 471–482 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-021-02716-4

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