Known Triterpenes and their Derivatives as Scaffolds for the Development of New Therapeutic Agents for Cancer

摘要

Background: Plants produce several bioactive secondary metabolites whose are used as therapeutic agents to treat several diseases, among whom cancer. Triterpenes are secondary metabolites that exert inhibitory activity against multiple intracellular and extracellular targets in euchariotic cells. These targets are proteins involved in apoptosis, cell development and differentiation, angiogenesis, metastasis and inflammatory processes. The inhibition of their functions leads to decreased cellular growth, differentiation and migration, resulting in antitumor activity, as shown by several authors. Furthermore, during recent years synthetic triterpenoid derivatives have also been developed to implement potency and efficacy of starting compounds, allowing the obtainment of new agents having promising anticancer activity.