Immune system activation by natural products and complex fractions: a network pharmacology approach in cancer treatment

Abstract

Natural products and traditional herbal medicine are an important source of alternative bioactive compounds but very few plant-based preparations have been scientifically evaluated and validated for their potential as medical treatments. However, a promising field in the current therapies based on plant-derived compounds is the study of their immunomodulation properties and their capacity to activate the immune system to fight against multifactorial diseases like cancer. In this review we discuss how network pharmacology could help to characterize and validate natural single molecules or more complex preparations as promising cancer therapies based on their multitarget capacities.

Keywords

• natural products
• cancer
• immune response
• network pharmacology
• immunomodulation
• herbal medicine
• immunogenic cell death