Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent catabolic process, involves the encapsulation of substrates in double-membraned vesicles, in which the cytoplasmic macromolecules, aggregated proteins, damaged organelles and pathogens are degraded into nucleotides, amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, and ATP, so that the metabolic precursors are recycled. The role of autophagy in cancer is complex. Autophagy may act as “the Interrupters” at the earliest stages of tumorigenesis. In contrast, autophagy can help cancer cells evade intracellular and environmental stresses, such as hypoxia, nutrient shortage, and cancer therapies, thereby favoring tumor progression in established cancers. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, two clinically available autophagy inhibitors, were combined with radiation or/and alkylating agents for cancer therapies, which exhibited a statistically significant prolonged median survival data. It is becoming increasingly evident that autophagy inhibition could improve therapeutic outcomes for patients with advanced cancers.

Natural products are an important resource for finding new drugs, which are mainly originated from medicinal plants, microbes, and marine organisms. A variety of natural products and their derivatives have been developed into anticancer drugs for clinical applications, including paclitaxel, camptothecin, bleomycin, mitomycin, et al. In recent years, there is a growing interest in discovering diverse natural products as promising autophagy modulators with minimal side effects. Many natural products have been identified to exert the anticancer activities via regulating autophagy, such as curcumin, resveratrol, γ-tocotrienol, etc. Curcumin induced autophagy primarily via ROS generation, the upregulation of Beclin-1, and the subsequent accumulation of LC3-II. In mesothelioma and K562 chronic myelogenous leukemia cells, curcumin also induced autophagy-associated apoptosis through regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and NF-κB signaling pathway. The resveratrol can also inhibit breast cancer stem cell proliferation by inducing autophagy via inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

In this Frontiers Research Topic, our goal is to collect and assess the latest studies on the regulation of autophagy by natural product in cancers, aiming to draw a clearer picture for researchers on this issue. We believe that this Research Topic would provide a new insight into the use of natural products in cancer treatment.

This Research Topic focus on the potential of natural products as anticancer drugs via regulating autophagy. We welcome studies on the following subtopics, but not limited to:
-New natural products targeting autophagy as pro-apoptotocic / anticancer agents: discovery and identification.
-Bioassay directed isolation, preparation and identification of pro-apoptotocic / anticancer secondary metabolites targeting autophagy from medicinal plants, microbes, and marine organisms.
-The molecular mechanisms of autophagy modulating natural products as potential cancer therapeutics
-The roles of autophagy in understanding cancer and its treatment - Natural products as models
-Pharmacokinetic studies on natural products targeting autophagy .
-Structure modification of natural products targeting autophagy for improving pro-apoptotic / anticancer effects.
-Pre-clinical research on natural products targeting autophagy as lead compound with pro-apoptotic effects.
- Clinical research on natural products targeting autophagy as anticancer / chemopreventive agents.

One can find more information about the Article Types guidelines in the Ethnopharmacology section here).

All the manuscripts submitted to this project will be peer-reviewed and need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version here).

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Frontiers in Pharmacology

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