Drug Discovery Inspired by Mother Nature for Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Cancer is a hyper-proliferative disorder that arises due to dysregulation of multiple cell signaling pathways. It is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Globally, about 14.1 million new cases of cancer have reported in 2012, and 8.2 million deaths occurred due to cancer (14.6% of all human deaths) (WHO 2014). The most common types of cancer in females are breast, colorectal, lung, and cervical cancer and in males lung, prostate, colorectal and stomach cancer. The rate of cancer incidences is increasing in developing as well as developed countries due to change in lifestyle and increase in average life span of the people [1]. The risk factors associated with cancer are environmental factors such as diet and obesity (30–35%), infections (15–20%), tobacco consumption (25–30%), radiation (10%), stress, lack of physical activity, and environmental pollutants [2]. The remaining 5–10% is due to inherited genetics. Since most common cause of cancer is environmental factors, changing lifestyle can prevent it [3]. Other than lifestyle, several therapeutic measures are available to treat the cancer that includes surgery, chemo, radiation, hormone, targeted, and biological therapy but these therapies are very expensive, unsafe , and have numerous side effects. Because of these, people are always in search for effective and less expensive, nontoxic drugs from Mother Nature. Natural products have been used for the treatment of different diseases since centuries. Since last few decades a number of drugs have been discovered either by serendipity or by rationale against various diseases including cancer. From last few decades, 74.8% drugs