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MINI REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1467894
This article is part of the Research Topic Targets in Cardio-Oncology: Drug Effects and Mechanisms of Action View all 11 articles
Potential Bidirectional Regulatory Effects of Botanical Drug Metabolites on Tumors and Cardiovascular Diseases Based on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR Pathway
Provisionally accepted- Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
Pharmacological interventions targeting the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) signaling pathway are predominantly employed as anticancer therapies, yet they are frequently associated with significant cardiac toxicity.Additionally, the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway plays a crucial role in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, highlighting its dual significance in both oncology and cardiology. Therefore, the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway has become an ideal signaling pathway for studying cardioprotection, anticancer effects, and their associated cardiac toxicity. Botanical drugs have emerged as a significant source for developing therapeutic agents with anticancer and cardioprotective effects, often exhibiting bidirectional protective properties. Consequently, this study investigates the bidirectional regulatory influence of botanical drug metabolites in oncology and cardiology via the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. The research indicated that the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway plays a critical regulatory role in the pathogenesis of both tumors and cardiovascular diseases. The botanical drug metabolites Ruscogenin, Sulforaphane, Naringenin, Kaempferol, Poncirin, and Puerarin can improve cancer by inhibiting the phosphorylation levels within the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling cascade. Moreover, they also provide cardioprotective effects in cardiac injury conditions by activating the phosphorylation levels of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Therefore, the phosphorylation dynamics of key components in the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, particularly the phosphorylation of Akt, along with the functional implications of different phosphorylation sites, may offer new therapeutic strategies and insights for cancer treatment and the mitigation of cardiotoxicity associated with cancer therapies.
Keywords: Botanical drug metabolite, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, Cancer, cardiotoxicity, Cardioprotective
Received: 21 Jul 2024; Accepted: 11 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Liu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jie Wang, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.