Andrographolide: A New Plant-Derived Antineoplastic Entity on Horizon

Figure 2

Effect of andrographolide treatment on cancer cells. Cancer is a multifaceted disease with complex processes and requires a multi-target therapeutic approach to battle it. A similar kind of action is displayed by andrographolide as it modulates various biochemical pathways of cancer cells thereby inhibiting the tumor growth. The compound exerts cytotoxic effect on various cancer cell types in a time and dose dependent manner. Factors required for tumor progression, nourishment and metastasis are down regulated, that is, cyclins A, D, Cdk2, Cdk4, NF-κB, VEGF, E-selectin, VCAM, Akt, TNF, Bcl2, and so forth. On the other hand tumor suppressor elements like p53, caspases, inhibitory proteins p21, p16, p27, and so forth are up regulated as observed in various studies to investigate anti-cancer potential of andrographolide. Up regulation of death receptor 4 to facilitate TRAIL induced apoptosis is of significant interest. The cumulative effect of all these factorial events leads to inhibition of growth in cancer cells. The alphabets placed adjacent to the petals refer to the reference numbers of articles. a [35, 45, 47, 49, 50]; b [49, 50, 60, 66, 68]; c [60, 62]; d [82]; e [37, 46, 87]; f [71–73]; g [34, 37, 45, 48]; h [34, 60, 74].