Effect of Cynanchum paniculatum (Bge.) Kitag. on various diseases: an overview of current research progress

Abstract

Traditional medicine and compounds identified from the medicinal plant extract and nutraceuticals were known to show significant beneficial effects on human health. Cynanchum paniculatum is a medicinal herb successful in treatment of many microbial infectious and metabolic disorders such as cancer. Management of tumors are still a big challenge for oncologists because there are several complex mechanisms in the cancerous cells, that influence the host system to support the tumor microenvironment. One of the well-established properties of cancerous cell is its metastasizing ability, which makes tumor development in other organs and higher recurrence rate. Cancer cells attains the metastatic property by inducing a specific pathway called epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). It was observed that the inhibition of cell migration was effective in both CP extract and conditioned medium supplemented cells compared to their respective controls. We found that, in MCF-7 cells, conditioned medium showed better activity than direct CP extract treatment. This shows that CP extract interferes with cell migration and pertaining intracellular signals. We presume that the major reason behind this would be the effect of CP on modulation in exosomal pathway and their communication through secreted biomolecules. In conclusion, EMT signaling plays a crucial role in tumor metastasis and CP extract played a significant role in inhibition of cell migration through intra/extracellular signaling of cancer cells. This can be an important finding for future studies on the role of CP constituents against cancer metastasis and recurrence.