Dear Lee,
One possible and so far explored mechanism is that, Ursolic Acid inhibits STAT3 signaling pathway thus curbing the STAT3 mediated proliferative pathways in cancer cells and also increases their sensitization towards chemo therapeutics. It also brought about an growth arrest at G1-G0 phase (tthis particular study which I am referring about has been done in Multiple Myeloma).
There has been other recent reports demonstrating that Ursolic Acid has potent caspase and GSK3-beta dependent apoptotic activity in ovarian cancer cells, involving the cleavage/activation of Casp-9 and 3 while down regulation of c-Myc and Bcl-Xl.
Similar mechanisms of induction of apoptosis by involving caspase pathways has been elucidated in other cancer systems too (e.g. HepG2, BGC-823, SH-SY5Y, HeLa and HELF cells)
Dear Lee,
I am attaching couple of articles, which may be helpful to you.
Medicinal plants containing ursolic acid have been used in folk medicine before it was known which constituents were responsible for their therapeutic effectiveness. Contemporary scientific research which led to the isolation and identification of ursolic acid revealed and confirmed that several pharmacological effects, such as, anti-tumor, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory (oral and topical), anti-ulcer, antimicrobial, anti-hyperlipidemic and antiviral, can be attributed to ursolic acid1.
However, its anti-inflammatory (topical), anti-tumor (skin cancer), and antimicrobial properties are pertinent to the cosmetic industry.
Http://www.malarianexus.com/articles/inhibitory-effect-of-ursolic-acid-derivatives-on-hydrogen-peroxide/
Hi,
Ursolic acid has been shown to suppress the CXCL12/CXCR4 signalling axis. This pathway contributes a lot to the ability of cancer cells to metastasise. I am attaching the link to the article so that u can take a look. This is a work carried out in our Lab.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21480220
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