Antitumor Activity of Artemisinin and Its Derivatives: From a Well-Known Antimalarial Agent to a Potential Anticancer Drug

Table 1

Factors that may influence artemisinins response in cancer cells.

System	Factor/characteristic
Cancer cell	Proliferating activity
	Expression of transferrin receptors
	Accumulation levels of iron
	Levels of gene expression (i.e., proapoptotic and antiapoptotic genes)
	Shifting hallmarks
	Overexpression of potential molecular targets in some tumors
	Cellular dependence on redox balance
	Expression of antioxidant enzymes
	Expression of estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells
Artemisinin compound	Dose and time of exposure
	Chemical structure: number of trioxane rings, for example, dimeric compounds can be up to >1000 fold-more potent than monomeric artemisinins [61]
	In dimeric endoperoxides: nature and stereochemistry of the linker
	In novel compounds, electrophilic substitutions in the ring or those conferring lipophilicity. Boat/chair conformation