中药成分诱导肿瘤细胞自噬的研究进展

自噬是广泛存在于真核细胞中的一种程序性死亡方式,其通过单层或双层膜包裹自身细胞质蛋白或细胞器形成自噬体,再与溶酶体融合形成自噬溶酶体,最终使被包裹的内容物降解,以实现"自身消化"和细胞器更新的过程。自噬参与细胞诸多生理和病理过程,与肿瘤发生密切相关。正常情况下,自噬可清除细胞内异常的折叠蛋白、细胞器,抑制细胞的应激反应,降低肿瘤的发生率。但在某些肿瘤中,自噬可通过降解肿瘤细胞内变性的蛋白质和细胞器而促进肿瘤细胞的存活。目前越来越多的研究表明,中药有效部位如生物碱、黄酮、皂苷、强心苷等均能够诱导肿瘤细胞的自噬。本文以中药有效部位为基础,结合肿瘤细胞产生自噬的分子机制,对中药诱导肿瘤细胞自噬的研究进展进行综述,以期为中药防治肿瘤提供参考。

Mechanisms of Autophagy of Tumour Cells Induced by Traditional Chinese Medicine

Autophagy is a vital programmed cell death mode widely existing in the eukaryotic cells. During the process, cytoplasmic proteins and organelles are wrapped by single or double-membrane auto-phagosomes, and then integrated with lysosomes into auto-lysosomes, so as to finally degrade the wrapped content, and achieve self-digestion and organelles renewal. Autophagy gets involved in a wide variety of physiological and pathological processes and closely related to tumorigenesis. Under normal circumstances, autophagy could clear misfolded proteins and organelles, leading to the suppression of stress reaction and downregulation of cancer incidence. However, although autophagy is primarily a protective metabolic pathway for cells, it can also promote tumor viability by degrading abnormal proteins and organelles in cancer cells. In recent years, more and more experimental evidences have indicated that active components of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), like alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins and cardiac glycosides, could induce autophagy of tumour cells. In this review, based on active components of TCM medicine and molecular mechanisms of autophagy in cancer cells, we summarize the research progress of autophagy induced by TCM, in order to provide reference for the prevention and treatment of tumour with TCM.