Toxic medicine used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for cancer treatment: are ion channels involved?

Abstract

Cancer has been one of the most serious public health issues in the world. Traditional medicines are widely used in adjunctive therapies in clinical cancer treatment in many countries. One of the unique traditional medicine usages in tumor treatment is the high-dose application of traditional toxin medicine, including venom or body from toxin animals. Evidence has shown that they are very likely to have direct effects on cancer cells. One of the potential pharmacological effects of traditional toxin medicines is their regulation of ion channels in cancers. Many ion channels are found critical in cancers. This study suggested that ion channels were involved in the effect of traditional toxin medicine on cancers. However, so far, the study of the effect of traditional toxin medicine on ion channels in cancers is relatively lacking. This perspective article urged the study in this field because, given the fact that these traditional toxin traditional medicines have been widely used in cancer treatment, the identification of the effective components and pharmacological targets can improve their clinical application.