Plant lectins, from ancient sugar-binding proteins to emerging anti-cancer drugs in apoptosis and autophagy.

Abstract

Ubiquitously distributed in different plant species, plant lectins are highly diverse carbohydrate-binding proteins of non-immune origin. They have interesting pharmacological activities and currently are of great interest to thousands of people working on biomedical research in cancer-related problems. It has been widely accepted that plant lectins affect both apoptosis and autophagy by modulating representative signalling pathways involved in Bcl-2 family, caspase family, p53, PI3K/Akt, ERK, BNIP3, Ras-Raf and ATG families, in cancer. Plant lectins may have a role as potential new anti-tumour agents in cancer drug discovery. Thus, here we summarize these findings on pathway- involved plant lectins, to provide a comprehensive perspective for further elucidating their potential role as novel anti-cancer drugs, with respect to both apoptosis and autophagy in cancer pathogenesis, and future therapy.

• Authors: Q-L Jiang, S Zhang, M Tian, S-Y Zhang, T Xie, D-Y Chen, Y-J Chen, J He, J Liu, L Ouyang, X Jiang
• Journal: Cell proliferation (Cell Prolif) Vol. 48 Issue 1 Pg. 17-28 (Feb 2015) ISSN: 1365-2184 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 25488051 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Review)
• Copyright: © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Chemical References

• Antineoplastic Agents
• Plant Lectins

Topics

• Animals
• Antineoplastic Agents (therapeutic use)
• Apoptosis (drug effects)
• Autophagy (drug effects)
• Humans
• Neoplasms (drug therapy, metabolism, pathology)
• Plant Lectins (therapeutic use)
• Signal Transduction (drug effects)