Pharmacological Effects and Underlying Mechanisms of Licorice-Derived Flavonoids

Table 3

Anticancer/tumor effects of licorice flavonoid and its active components in experimental models.

Cancer	Compounds	Dose and administration	Result	References
Colon	Isoangustone A	5–20 μM incubated	Induced apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells	[116]
	Total flavonoids	Gavaged (50 and 100 mg/kg) once a day for 28 days	Restrained AOM/DSS-induced colitis-associated tumorigenesis, reduced activation of p53 and NF-κB, and suppressed phosphorylated-Janus kinases 2 (p-JAK2) and phosphorylated-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3) production	[46]
	Liquiritigenin	50 and 100 μM incubated	Exerted significant inhibitory effects on HCT116 colorectal cancer cell invasion and blocked the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process	[117]
Oral/esophageal squamous	Licochalcone A	10–40 μM incubated	Inhibited HN22 and HSC4 oral squamous cell carcinoma cells growth concentration- and time-dependently	[118]
	Licochalcone B	10–30 μM incubated	Arrested cell cycle at G1 phase, significantly inhibited cell proliferation, and induced apoptosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells	[119]
	Licochalcone C	10–30 μM incubated for 48 h	Significantly decreased cell viability of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner	[120]
	Licochalcone H	10–30 μM incubated	Induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, reduced cell activity, and colony-forming ability in HSC2 and HSC3 oral squamous cell carcinoma cells	[77]
	Glabridin	20–80 μM incubated	Inhibited cell proliferation in human tongue squamous carcinoma cell lines (SCC-9 and SAS) and induced several features of apoptosis	[121]
	Isoliquiritigenin	25 and 50 μM incubated	Induced cell cycle G2/M phase arrest, DNA damage, and apoptosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells	[122]
Prostate	Licochalcone A	6.5 and 12.5 μM incubated	Induced caspase-dependent and autophagy-related cell death in LNCaP cells	[123]
	Isoliquiritigenin	25 and 50 μM incubated	Suppressed cell proliferation, induced cell apoptosis, and arrested G2/M cell cycle in human prostate cancer PC-3 and 22RV1 cells	[124]
Bladder	Licochalcone A	10–40 μM incubated	Exerted antiproliferative effect on human bladder cancer cells and induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death	[125]
Ovary	Isoliquiritigenin	5 and 10 μM incubated	Inhibited epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, migration, and invasion in SKOV3 and OVCAR5 ovarian cancer cells and extended the life span of animals bearing SKOV3/Luc cells consequently	[126]
Cervix uteri	Liquiritin	40–80 μM incubated	Suppressed the migration, invasion, and cloning ability of cervical cancer cells and showed little cytotoxicity to human normal cells	[111]
Glioma	Licochalcone A	10–30 μM incubated	Inhibited glioma cell growth in U87 glioma cell lines and U87 glioma cell xenograft male athymic mice	[127]
Melanoma	Isoliquiritigenin	20–80 μM incubated	Effectively induced apoptosis and inhibited proliferation in mouse melanoma B16F10 cells	[128]
Uterine leiomyoma	Isoliquiritigenin	10–40 μM incubated in vivo; 1 and 5 mg/ml (i.p.) three times a week for 9 weeks on ICR mice	Exerted inhibition of estrogen-induced uterine leiomyoma growth both in vitro and in vivo	[114]
Pleural mesothelioma	Licochalcone A	10–40 μM incubated	Induced apoptosis through suppressing Sp1 expression in malignant pleural mesothelioma cell MSTO-211H and H28	[115]
Osteosarcoma	Licochalcone A	20–60 μM incubated with human osteosarcoma cells; 10 mg/ml (i.p.) twice a week for 5 weeks on BALB/c nude mice	Inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in human osteosarcoma cells by reduction of cell viability, activation of caspases, and loss of mitochondrial membrane potentials	[129]