Abstract
Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world. Apoptosis, one of the pathways of programmed cell death, is a promising target for cancer therapy. Traditional Tibetan medicine (TTM) has been used by Tibetan people for thousands of years, and many TTMs have been proven to be effective in the treatment of cancer. This paper summarized the medicinal plants with anticancer activity in the Tibetan traditional system of medicine by searching for Tibetan medicine monographs and drug standards and reviewing modern research literatures. Forty species were found to be effective in treating cancer. More importantly, some TTMs (e.g., Ophiocordyceps sinensis, Phyllanthus emblica L. and Rhodiola kirilowii (Regel) Maxim.) and their active ingredients (e.g., cordycepin, salidroside, and gallic acid) have been reported to possess anticancer activity by targeting some apoptosis pathways in cancer, such as Bcl-2/Bax, caspases, PI3K/Akt, JAK2/STAT3, MAPK, and AMPK. These herbs and natural compounds would be potential drug candidates for the treatment of cancer.
Highlights
Apoptosis, which is known as programmed cell death, is beneficial to normal cell development, organ growth, and the dynamic balance of tissues (Rogers and Almenri, 2019)
Tibetan medicine (TTM) believes that the occurrence of cancer is closely related to “loong” and “bad blood”
The results showed that, in TTM, the direct cause of cancer is the shrinking and aggregating of “bad blood” owing to the reverse effect of loong (Figure 1)
Summary
Apoptosis, which is known as programmed cell death, is beneficial to normal cell development, organ growth, and the dynamic balance of tissues (Rogers and Almenri, 2019). Apoptosis is a normal physiological process that plays an important role in the development and dynamic balance of organisms (Xu et al, 2015). A large number of studies have shown that regulating and inducing apoptosis are feasible ways for treating cancer (Hoshyar and Mollaei, 2017; Yoon et al, 2018). Apoptosis can be activated by the intrinsic mitochondrial or extrinsic death receptor apoptotic pathway. The intrinsic mitochondrial apoptotic pathway is activated when
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