Open AccessPlant lectins, from ancient sugar‐binding proteins to emerging anti‐cancer drugs in apoptosis and autophagy
Author(s) -
Jiang Q.L.,
Zhang S.,
Tian M.,
Zhang S.Y.,
Xie T.,
Chen D.Y.,
Chen Y.J.,
He J.,
Liu J.,
Ouyang L.,
Jiang X.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
cell proliferation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-2184
pISSN - 0960-7722
DOI - 10.1111/cpr.12155
Subject(s) - autophagy , biology , apoptosis , cancer , cancer cell , mapk/erk pathway , caspase , drug discovery , cancer therapy , microbiology and biotechnology , signal transduction , biochemistry , programmed cell death , genetics
Ubiquitously distributed in different plant species, plant lectins are highly diverse carbohydrate‐binding proteins of non‐immune origin. They have interesting pharmacological activities and currently are of great interest to thousands of people working on biomedical research in cancer‐related problems. It has been widely accepted that plant lectins affect both apoptosis and autophagy by modulating representative signalling pathways involved in Bcl‐2 family, caspase family, p53, PI 3K/Akt, ERK , BNIP 3, Ras‐Raf and ATG families, in cancer. Plant lectins may have a role as potential new anti‐tumour agents in cancer drug discovery. Thus, here we summarize these findings on pathway‐ involved plant lectins, to provide a comprehensive perspective for further elucidating their potential role as novel anti‐cancer drugs, with respect to both apoptosis and autophagy in cancer pathogenesis, and future therapy.