OncoTargets and Therapy (Apr 2021)
Dihydroartemisinin as a Sensitizing Agent in Cancer Therapies
Abstract
Qingrong Li,1– 3,* Qiang Ma,1– 3,* Jibing Cheng,1– 3 Xi Zhou,1– 3 Wenjie Pu,1– 3 Xiaowu Zhong,1– 3 Xiaolan Guo1– 3 1Department of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, 637000, People’s Republic of China; 2Translational Medicine Research Center, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, 637000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, 637000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xiaolan GuoDepartment of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College Tel +86-817-2262302Fax +86-817-2282052Email [email protected]: Cancer is one of the major threats to human health. Although humans have struggled with cancer for decades, the efficacy of treatments for most tumors is still very limited. Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) is a derivative of artemisinin, a first-line antimalarial drug originally developed in China. Beyond the anti-malarial effect, DHA has also been reported to show anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitosis, and immune-modulating properties in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, an increasing number of studies report that DHA possesses anticancer activities on a wide range of cancer types both in vitro and in vivo, as well as enhances the efficacy of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and even radiotherapy. However, the mechanisms of DHA on different tumors differ in various ways. In this review, we intend to summarize how DHA sensitizes cancer cells to anti-cancer therapies, highlight its molecular mechanisms and pharmacological effects in vitro and in vivo as well as in current clinical trials, and discuss potential issues concerning DHA. Hopefully, more attention will be paid to DHA as a sensitizer for cancer therapy in the future.Keywords: dihydroartemisinin, anti-tumor drugs, sensitizer, molecular mechanism
