Natural compounds as scaffolds for the Discovery of new anti-cancer drugs: focus on terpenoids and flavonoids

SÜLSEN V; ATHANASSOPOULOS C; PADRON J; TAMURA R

FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY

Frontiers Media SA

Año: 2022

1663-9812

Natural Compounds as Scaffolds for the Discovery of New Anti-Cancer Drugs: Focus on Terpenoids and Flavonoids Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and it is estimated that there were nearly 10 million deaths in 2020 due to cancer (WHO, 2022). This disease is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of tumor cells in the body, resistance to cell death and other hallmarks that lead to the development of a tumor mass with potential to metastasize and spread to the body. Although chemotherapy is one of the best treatments for cancer, the drugs currently in use have serious side effects and have shown increasing resistance. For this reason, it is necessary to look for new, more effective and selective drugs with fewer adverse effects.Natural products have played an important role in the discovery and development of new drugs. Many of the drugs that are currently used in therapeutics originate from natural compounds. Despite advances and the development of synthetic pharmaceutical chemistry, drugs derived from natural sources continue to hold a prominent position. The great chemical diversity they present determines that there is a greater possibility of finding new molecules with unique structures and potential biological activities (Davison and Brimble, 2019).More than 60% of the agents available to treat cancer are connected to natural sources (Newman and Cragg, 2020).