- 1
- aCancer
Pharmacology Division bAcademy of Scientific and Innovative Research
(AcSIR), Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine - CSIR, Jammu, Jammu
and Kashmir, India.
Abstract
Colchicine, the main alkaloid of the poisonous plant meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale
L.), is a classical drug used for the treatment of gout and familial
Mediterranean fever. Although colchicine is not clinically used to treat
cancer because of toxicity, it exerts antiproliferative effects through
the inhibition of microtubule formation by blocking the cell cycle at
the G2/M phase and triggering apoptosis. Colchicine can still be used as
a lead compound for the generation of potential anticancer drugs. Thus,
numerous analogues of colchicine have been synthesized in the hope of
developing novel, useful drugs with more favourable pharmacological
profiles. Several colchicine semisynthetics are less toxic than
colchicine and research is being carried out on effective, less toxic
colchicine semisynthetic formulations with potential drug-delivery
strategies directly targeting multiple solid cancers. This review
focuses on the anticancer role of some of colchicine-based derivatives
and their therapeutic importance.
