One of the crucial evolutionarily preserved survival processes is autophagy, which can
also be induced with the help of natural compounds of plant origin. These most
commonly originate from plants and are part of Chinese traditional medicine. The
most studied compounds are resveratrol, DMC, berberine and ceastrol, which work in
very different ways. Resveratrol induces autophagy via the mTOR complex and
degradation of the classical p62 autophagy receptor, DMC works dependent of Atg
proteins, celastrol inhibits Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and increases expression of
autophagosomes and p62 proteins and berberin works via the SIRT1 nutrient sensor.
All four natural compounds have in common that they effectively induce target cell
autophagy and do not damage neighboring, healthy cells. Thus, they represent a great
potential in medicine for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, so our purpose
was to review the literature on natural compounds of plant origin and review already
conducted studies on their potential use in chemotherapy. Due to the hypocrisy of
autophagy that can be inhibits or promotes cancer, it is very important to know the
stage of the tumor, the microenvironment and the appropriate combination of cancer
inhibitors based on autophagy and chemotherapeutics. Resveratrol, celastrol and DMC
have been shown to be the best natural compounds, inducing autophagy in tumor cells
and preventing the cytotoxic effect of the chemotherapeutic on healthy cells. It is
known that natural compounds already induce autophagy themselves, but have a better
effect on limiting the growth of cancer cells when used in a combination with
appropriate chemotherapeutics.
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