Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with a mortality rate of more than 9 million deaths reported in 2018. Conventional anti-cancer therapy can greatly improve survival however treatment resistance is still a major problem especially in metastatic disease. Targeted anti-cancer therapy is increasingly used with conventional therapy to improve patients' outcomes in advanced and metastatic tumors. However, due to the complexity of cancer biology and metastasis, it is urgent to develop new agents and evaluate the anti-cancer efficacy of available treatments. Many phytochemicals from medicinal plants have been reported to possess anti-cancer properties. One such compound is known as oridonin, a bioactive component of Rabdosia rubescens. Several studies have demonstrated that oridonin inhibits angiogenesis in various types of cancer, including breast, pancreatic, lung, colon and skin cancer. Oridonin's anti-cancer effects are mediated through the modulation of several signaling pathways which include upregulation of oncogenes and pro-angiogenic growth factors. Furthermore, oridonin also inhibits cell migration, invasion and metastasis via suppressing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and blocking downstream signaling targets in the cancer metastasis process. This review summarizes the recent applications of oridonin as an anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic drug both in vitro and in vivo, and its potential mechanisms of action.
Nanomedicine is a rapidly emerging field and is reported to be a promising tool for treating various diseases. Green synthesized nanoparticles are documented to possess a potent anticancer effect. Rabdosia rubescens is a Chinese plant which is also one of the components of PC-SPES and used to treat prostate cancer. In the present study, we synthesized the gold nanoparticles from R. rubescens (RR-AuNP) and analyzed its anticancer activity against the lung carcinoma A549 cell lines. Since lung cancer is reported to be with increased morbidity and decreased survival rate. The biosynthesized RR-AuNP were confirmed using UV-Visible spectrophotometer, size and shape of RR-AuNP were assessed by DLS, TEM and EDX. The biomolecules present in RR-AuNP and its topographical structure were detected using FTIR, SAED and AFM analysis. MTT assay was performed to detect the IC50 dose of RR-AuNP and its apoptotic effect was assessed by detecting the caspases activation, ROS generation. The anticancer effect of RR-AuNP was confirmed by DAPI staining, TUNEL assay and its molecular mechanism were confirmed by assessing the apoptotic signalling molecules protein expression. Our results illustrate that RR-AuNP showed a strong absorption peak at 550 nm and the RRAuNP were polydispersed nanospheres with size of 130 nm. RR-AuNP IC50 dose against A549 lung carcinoma cell line was detected to be at 25 µg/ml. The results of DAPI staining, TUNEL and immunoblotting analysis confirms both the 25 µg/ml and 50 µg/ml of RR-AuNP possess potent anticancer and apoptotic effect, suggesting that RR-AuNP that it may be a persuasive molecule to treat lung cancer.