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Natural compounds for pediatric cancer treatment

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Abstract

There is a tremendous need in clinics to impair cancer progression through noninvasive therapeutic approaches. The use of natural compounds to achieve this is of importance to improve the quality of life of young patients during their treatments. This review will address the “status of the art” related to the potential of natural compounds that are undergoing investigation in combination with standard therapeutic protocols in preclinical and clinical studies and their importance for pediatric cancer treatment. The early studies of drug discovery of these natural compounds discussed here include the main targets, the cellular signaling pathways involved, and the potential modes of action. We also focus on some promising natural compounds that have shown excellent results in vitro and in vivo: Chebulagic acid, Apigenin, Norcantharidin, Saffron/Crocin, Parthenolide, Longikaurin E, Lupeol, Spongistatin 1, and Deoxy-variolin B. Additionally, we introduce the effects of several compounds from nutraceutical and functional foods, to underline their potential use as adjuvant therapies to improve therapeutic benefits. For this purpose, we have selected several compounds: Agaritine, Ganoderma and GL6 peptide, Diallyl trisulfide and Ajoene from garlic, Epigallocatechin gallate from green tea, Curcumin, Resveratrol, and Quercetin.

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Abbreviations

EGCG:

Epigallocatechin gallate

IAPs:

Inhibitor-of-apoptosis proteins

RGD:

Arginine–lysine–aspartate

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Fondazione Adolfo Volpe e Associazione Pediatri di Famiglia, AIRC 2011–2014 MZ, the European FP7-TuMIC HEALTH-F2-2008-201662, the Italian Association for Cancer research (AIRC) Grant IG # 11963, the RegioneCampania L.R:N.5, the European National Funds PON01-02388/12007-2013 and MOVIE-POR B25C13000240007 for grant support. We thank Dr. Pasqualino De Antonellis and Dr. MariaNeve Carotenuto of CEINGE, Naples, Italy, for critical comments on the manuscript. The authors dedicate this article to the work and passion of Dr. Roberta Migliorati (Hospital SantoBono-Pausillipon, Naples, Italy), a pediatric oncologist who died of cancer in 2014 and to Leonardo Andrini.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology, ‘Federico II’ University of Naples, Via Pansini 5, Naples, Italy

    Veronica Ferrucci, Iolanda Boffa, Gina De Masi & Massimo Zollo

  2. European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM), Milan, Italy

    Veronica Ferrucci & Massimo Zollo

  3. Ceinge Biotecnologie Avanzate, Via Gaetano Salvatore 486, Naples, Italy

    Iolanda Boffa, Gina De Masi & Massimo Zollo

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  1. Veronica Ferrucci
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  4. Massimo Zollo
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Correspondence to Massimo Zollo.

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Supplemental Figure S1

Hierarchical mode of the literature searches carried out. Diagram explaining the hierarchical mode (phases 1, 2, 3) of the literature searches carried out for the indentification of natural compounds in pediatric tumor treatment discussed in this review. Our literature searches started by asking PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) for those manuscripts that described natural products in cancer therapy (phase 1). Then, those selected compounds were further screened to exclude drugs used only for adult tumor treatments (phase 2). Subsequently, the compounds that passed the first two levels of screening were further evaluated for those that have already been applied in childhood tumor treatment (phase 3). This selection additionally shortened the list of candidates, but since these compounds are still used for pediatric tumor treatment, they are listed in Table 1. Finally, we strictly applied the rules presented by Michel et al. (Michel et al. 2005) to choose the emerging natural compounds. (PPTX 478 kb)

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Ferrucci, V., Boffa, I., De Masi, G. et al. Natural compounds for pediatric cancer treatment. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 389, 131–149 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-015-1191-5

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