The Anticancer Potential of Maslinic Acid and Its Derivatives: A Review

Lei Yu,1,* Xiaofang Xie,1,* Xiaoyu Cao,1 Junren Chen,1 Guanru Chen,1 Yan Chen,1 Gangmin Li,1 Junyuan Qin,1 Fu Peng,2 Cheng Peng1 1State Key Laboratory of Southwestern Chinese Medicine Resources, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fu PengDepartment of Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 28-61800018Email fujing126@yeah.netCheng PengState Key Laboratory of Southwestern Chinese Medicine Resources, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 611137, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 28-61800231Email cdtcmpengcheng@126.comAbstract: Cancer is still an insurmountable problem for humans and critically attacking human health. In recent years, natural products have gained increasing attention in the field of anti-tumor due to their extensive sources and minimal side effects. Maslinic acid (MA), a pentacyclic triterpene acid mainly derived from the olive tree (Olea europaea L.) has been confirmed to possess great anti-cancer effects. This paper reviewed the inhibitory effect of MA and its derivatives on lung cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, lymphatic, leukemia, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma, prostate cancer, renal cell carcinoma, gallbladder cancer, and bladder cancer, among others. MA inhibited the proliferation of various tumor cells and showed lower IC50 values in melanoma 518A2 cells and gastric cancer MKN28 cells compared with other cell lines. A series of semi-synthetic derivatives obtained by modifying MA chemical structure have been shown to have high cytotoxicity to human tumor cell lines, but low cytotoxicity to non-malignant cells, which is conducive to developing its potential as a chemotherapeutic agent. These studies suggest that MA derivatives have broad prospects in the development of antitumor therapeutics in the future and warrant further study.Keywords: maslinic acid, tumor, mechanism, derivatives