The Natural Products for Cancer Therapy
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2025 | Viewed by 12
Special Issue Editor
Interests: plant extracts; metabolism; oxidative stress; inflammation; cancer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer is a very prevalent disease in the Western world, and its prevention and treatment is a goal pursued by many researchers today. Chemotherapeutic agents are widely used in the treatment of cancer pathogenesis and metastasis. However, normal cells often suffer side effects since there is no selective interaction between chemotherapeutic agents and normal and malignant cells. The application of natural products for therapeutic purposes has been the basis of traditional medicine. Thus, since the beginning of the 19th century, the prevention of certain types of cancer by adopting adequate nutrition has been suggested. Further, it has been postulated that nutrition could influence the risk of cancer. There is an ever-growing list of natural products that possess anticancer activities without toxic effects. The natural products, mainly extracted from plants, contain bioactive components with beneficial properties for health. Among these components are polyphenols, characterized by great antioxidant and anti-inflammatory power; thus, their application in diseases related to oxidative stress, such as cancer, should be taken into consideration. On the other hand, the extraction of natural chemical compounds from residues, mainly agro-food or forestry, could be very useful not only for their application as bio-functional foods to improve human health, but also in promoting circular economy and solving environmental problems. Phytochemical and ethnobotanical studies are currently being conducted to identify the mechanism of action of a wide variety of natural compounds present in extracts or waste from the plant, but there is still much to be investigated.
This Special Issue will publish original research papers and reviews on aspects related to the chemistry of natural products in the prevention and treatment of cancer, as well as the modulators, targets, and pathways involved in their therapeutic actions. Importantly, the exact active ingredient of natural products must be reported in the submitted research manuscripts.
Dr. Maria Jesus Rodríguez-Yoldi
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- apoptosis, antioxidant
- anti-inflammatory
- cancer
- cell viability
- food-by-products
- natural products
- polyphenols
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