Anti-tumor Effect of Ligustrazine Alone and in Combination with Western Medicine： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

With serious environmental problems and the aging of population， the incidence of cancers worldwide has increased dramatically. For modern medicine， cancer is an incurable malignant disease with a high metastasis rate and strong cell proliferation and invasion ability. At present， clinical anti-cancer therapies mainly include chemotherapy and radiotherapy， but most chemotherapy drugs can cause serious side effects. Therefore， Chinese medicine with high safety has been widely used in anti-cancer treatment， which can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells， improve the quality of life， and prolong life. Ligustrazine is a pyrazine alkaloid isolated and purified from Chuanxiong Rhizoma， which has pharmacological effects， such as anti-fibrosis， anti-oxidation， and anti-tumor. In recent years， ligustrazine， as an index active component of Chuanxiong Rhizoma alkaloids， has gradually become one of the hot spots in clinical medical research due to its pharmacological actions， and its anti-tumor effect has attracted more attention from researchers. The present study mainly investigated the anti-cancer effect of ligustrazine from the induction of tumor cell apoptosis and autophagy， inhibition of cell proliferation and migration， reversal of multidrug resistance of cancer cells， and inhibition of angiogenesis， and the anti-tumor efficacy was observed in various malignancies such as gastric cancer， lung cancer， rectal cancer， bladder cancer， breast cancer， and ovarian cancer. In addition， ligustrazine can be combined with cisplatin， paclitaxel， podophyllotoxin， chalcone， curcumin， and other drugs to exert an anti-tumor effect. This study conducted a literature review based on the anti-tumor mechanism of ligustrazine to provide a reference for the treatment of clinical malignancies.