Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117600, Singapore
  • 2 College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Kyungheedae-gil, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea
  • 3 Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Centre for Translational Medicine, Singapore 117599, Singapore
  • 4 Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117600, Singapore; Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Centre for Translational Medicine, Singapore 117599, Singapore
  • 5 School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Biosciences Research Precinct, Curtin University, Western Australia 6009, Australia
  • 6 Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117600, Singapore; Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Centre for Translational Medicine, Singapore 117599, Singapore; School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Biosciences Research Precinct, Curtin University, Western Australia 6009, Australia; Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA
  • 7 Department of Physiology, Centre for Life Sciences, National University Health System, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117456, Singapore
  • 8 Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 9 Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore 138673, Singapore
  • 10 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Larkin Health Sciences Institute, Miami, FL 33169, USA. Electronic address: abishayee@ULarkin.org
  • 11 College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Kyungheedae-gil, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: ksahn@khu.ac.kr
  • 12 Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117600, Singapore; School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Biosciences Research Precinct, Curtin University, Western Australia 6009, Australia. Electronic address: phcgs@nus.edu.sg
Semin Cancer Biol, 2016 10;40-41:35-47.
PMID: 27038646 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2016.03.005

Abstract

The association between chronic inflammation and cancer development has been well documented. One of the major obstacles in cancer treatment is the persistent autocrine and paracrine activation of pro-inflammatory transcription factors such as nuclear factor-κB, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, activator protein 1, fork head box protein M1, and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α in a wide variety of tumor cell lines and patient specimens. This, in turn, leads to an accelerated production of cellular adhesion molecules, inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, anti-apoptotic molecules, and inducible nitric oxide synthase. Numerous medicinal plant-derived compounds have made a tremendous impact in drug discovery research endeavors, and have been reported to modulate the activation of diverse oncogenic transcription factors in various tumor models. Moreover, novel therapeutic combinations of standard chemotherapeutic drugs with these agents have significantly improved patient survival by making cancer cells more susceptible to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In this review, we critically analyze the existing literature on the modulation of diverse transcription factors by various natural compounds and provide views on new directions for accelerating the discovery of novel drug candidates derived from Mother Nature.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.