Advance in treatment of pediatric leukemia through modulating signaling pathways induced by traditional Chinese medicine / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in childhood, which is also one of the malignant tumors that can be cured by chemotherapy. However, infection and the side effects of chemotherapy drugs are the causes of death in children with leukemia. Chemotherapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine is used to treatment of pediatric leukemia in clinic. Although traditional Chinese medicine has extensive clinical experience in the treatment of leukemia, the mechanism is not clear. The targeted drugs are attractive for the advantages of the high selectivity and little side effects. Targeted therapies in pediatric leukemia are targeting BCR/ABL, TARA and FLT3 proteins, which activation results in the downstream activation of multiple signaling pathways, including the PI3K/AKT, JNK/STAT, Ras/ERK pathways. In recent years, the target site or the signaling pathways are clear for the traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of leukemia. In this paper, we review recent studies, summary the traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions and effective ingredients which can regulate the signaling pathways. We view to provide a basis for the treatment of childhood leukemia with traditional Chinese medicine combined with chemotherapy drugs or targeted drugs.