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Review
. 2018 Feb 27;6(1):19.
doi: 10.3390/medsci6010019.

Artemisinin and Its Synthetic Derivatives as a Possible Therapy for Cancer

Enrique Konstat-Korzenny  1 , Jorge Alberto Ascencio-Aragón  2 , Sebastian Niezen-Lugo  3 , Rosalino Vázquez-López  4
Affiliations
Review

Artemisinin and Its Synthetic Derivatives as a Possible Therapy for Cancer

Enrique Konstat-Korzenny et al. Med Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

To assess the possibility of using the antimalarial drug artemisinin and its synthetic derivatives as antineoplastic drugs. A Pubmed and Google Scholar (1983-2018) search was performed using the terms artemisinin, cancer, artesunate and Artemisia annua. Case reports and original research articles, review articles, and clinical trials in both humans and animals were evaluated. Both in vitro and in vivo clinical trials and case reports have shown promising activity of the artemisinin drug derivatives in treating certain types of cancer. However, the reported articles are few, and therefore not statistically significant. The minimal toxicity shown in clinical trials and case reports, along with the selective cytotoxic activity of the compounds, make them possible cancer therapies due to the emerging evidence of the drug's effectiveness.

Keywords: artemisinin; cancer; malaria.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Molecular Structure of artemisinin and its derivatives [9].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Molecular structure of new artemisinin synthetic derivatives [3].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mode of action of artemisinin hypothesized to selectively induce cell death in cancer cells. V-ATPase: Vacuolar-type H+-ATPase; ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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