Bufalin serves as a pharmaceutic that mitigates drug resistance

Abstract

Intrinsic or acquired drug resistance of tumor cells is the main cause of tumor chemotherapy failure and tumor-related death. Bufalin (BF) is the main active monomer component extracted from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Toad venom (secretions of glands behind the ears and epidermis of bufo gargarizans and Bufo Melanostictus Schneider). It is a cardiotonic steroid with broad-spectrum anti-cancer effects and has been widely used against various malignant tumors in clinical practice. Pharmacological studies also found that BF has the effect of reversing drug resistance, which provides a new perspective for the application of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a chemosensitizer in cancer therapy. This article provides an extensive search and summary of published research on mitigating drug resistance to BF and reviews its potential mechanisms.

Keywords:

• Bufalin
• cinobufacini
• tumor
• drug resistance
• review

Geolocation information

Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning Province, P.R. China.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: XNC Writing: LXM Revision: YL, NMA, BZ, XNC, YD.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author (s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Xiaonan Cui, the host of the Capacity Construction Project of Major Clinical (specialized) Departments of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Liaoning Province (No. LNZYXZK201909), and the host of the Distinguished Professor Program of Liaoning Province. And YingLiu, the host of the Dalian Medical Science Research Program (No.2011043).