Calculating the effectiveness of some important anticancer herbal compounds against the main hallmarks of cancer

摘要

There is a mounting evidence that certain herbal compounds express strong activity against various types of cancer cells. Curcumin from Curcuma longa, resveratrol from Vitis vinifera, and artemisinin from Artemisia annua are few examples from the longer list of more than fifty anticancer herbs known. This is mostly due to the extreme complexity of cancer processes that an exact mechanism of anticancer activity of these compounds is still unknown. However, with the rise of powerful supercomputers and the advanced in silico models of cancer, our chances to understand these processes increased, and now we are in place to deliver more effective therapies than ever before. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) cancer pathways are example of such in silico models. From KEGG cancer pathways, we were able to identify sixty-two oncogene proteins involved in the development, proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis and resistance of cancer. From them, we selected those having the largest number of hits in Pubmed database related to each of these cancer hallmarks, and use supercomputer for docking simulations between them and certain anticancer herbal compounds. Significant activity of anticancer herbal compounds against oncogene proteins was found. We hope our research will setup pathways towards more effective therapies.