Antitumor mechanism of glycyrrhizic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid and their application as drug delivery carriers / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma is one of the commonly used Chinese materia medica in clinic. It has the effects of tonifying spleen and replenishing qi, clearing heat and removing toxin, dispelling phlegm, relieving cough, relieving pain, and reconciling various drugs. Its main active ingredients are saponins, flavonoids and polysaccharides. Among them, glycyrrhizic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid not only have inhibitory effects on liver cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer and other cancers, but also can be combined with chemotherapeutic drugs to increase drug efficacy as well. At the same time, they can be developed as drug carrier for drug delivery to solve the problems of low water solubility, low bioavailability, high toxicity and side effects of drugs. It was found that their solubilization may be closely related to their amphiphilic structure, which is expected to further explore the role of their carrier characteristics in drug transmembrane transport. Based on the anti-tumor mechanisms of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, the applications of glycyrrhizic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid in drug delivery systems were systematically summarized in this paper, which could provide reference for the further study of glycyrrhizic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid as excipients of drug delivery systems.