Effect of herbal extracts on cancer cell signaling and cell cycle regulatory targets: herbs as preventive method in cancer development

The continuous increase in cancer cases, failure of conventional chemotherapies to control the disease, and excessive toxicity of chemotherapies (in some cases including immunotherapy) clearly demand an alternative approach. This project will consider the properties of several promising herbal extracts for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer in vitro and in vivo. Although, immunotherapy has recently achieved clinical successes in a variety of cancers, thus far there is no effective therapeutic strategy for breast cancer. Herbs are considered as one of the most promising sources for new anticancer compounds. Therefore, it is very important to elucidate and reveal the direct and indirect targets of the effects of herbs in the cell. The effect of plant extracts on the functional activity of cell signaling systems such as HER2 / PI3K / Akt / mTOR and JAK2 / STAT3, as well as cell cycle regulators including p53, p21, CDK4/6 will be explored in the proposed research project. It is also planned to reveal the possible direct interactions of compounds of herbal extracts with HER2, PI3K, Akt, JAK, CdK-4/6 through computer modeling programs. The research will deepen the basic knowledge of tumor cell signaling, immunobiology and the biological role of plant extracts.