Prevention of carcinogenesis and metastasis by Artemisinin-type drugs.
Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood, qinhao) is an ancient Chinese herbal remedy for pyrexia. Nowadays, artemisinin (qinghaosu) and its derivatives belong to the standard therapies against malaria worldwide, and its discovery has led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine to Youyou Tu in 2015. While most attention has been paid to the treatment of malaria, there is increasing evidence that Artemisinin-type drugs bear a considerable potential to treat and prevent cancer. Rather than reporting on therapy of cancer, this review gives a comprehensive and timely overview on the chemopreventive effects of artemisinin and its derivatives against carcinogenesis and metastasis formation, following the multistage model of carcinogenesis (initiation, promotion, progression). The favorable toxicity profile known from malaria studies indicates that artemisinin-type drugs may be safely applied to prevent carcinogenesis and cancer metastasis in human beings.
['Abba|Mohammed L|ML|', 'Patil|Nitin|N|', 'Leupold|Jörg Hendrik|JH|', 'Saeed|Mohamed E M|MEM|', 'Efferth|Thomas|T|', 'Allgayer|Heike|H|']
D000962:Antimalarials D031172:Artemisia annua D037621:Artemisinins D063646:Carcinogenesis D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic D006801:Humans D015394:Molecular Structure D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis D009369:Neoplasms D008517:Phytotherapy
Prevention Carcinogenesis Metastasis Cancer Progression Artemisia annua L. Asteraceae Initation