Celastrol as a pentacyclic triterpenoid with chemopreventive properties.

Celastrol is a highly investigated anticancer moiety. It is a pentacyclic triterpenoid, isolated several decades ago with promising role in chemoprevention. Celastrol has been found to target multiple proinflammatory, angiogenic and metastatic proteins. Inhibition of these targets results in significant reduction of cancer growth, survival and metastasis. This review summarizes the varied molecular targets of celastrol along with insight into the various recently published clinical, preclinical and industrial patents (2011-2017).