Fascinating Chemopreventive Story of Wogonin: A Chance to Hit on the Head in Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Cancer, global havoc, is a group of debilitating diseases that strikes family as well as society. Cancer cases are drastically increasing these days. Despite many therapies and surgical procedures available, cancer is still difficult to control due to limited effective therapies or targeted therapies. Natural products can produce lesser side effects to the normal cells, which are the major demerit of chemotherapies and radiation. Wogonin, a natural product extracted from the plant, Scutellaria baicalensis has been widely studied and found with a high caliber to tackle most of the cancers via several mechanisms that include intrinsic as well as extrinsic apoptosis signaling pathways, carcinogenesis diminution, telomerase activity inhibition, metastasis inhibition in the inflammatory microenvironment, anti-angiogenesis, cell growth inhibition and arrest of the cell cycle, increased generation of H₂O₂ and accumulation of Ca²⁺ and also as an adjuvant along with anticancer drugs. This article discusses the role of wogonin in various cancers, its synergism with various drugs, and the mechanism by which wogonin controls tumor growth.

Keywords: Wogonin; anti-angiogenesis; apoptosis; carcinogenesis diminution; cell cycle arrest; chemosensitizer; metastasis.