Ashwagandha bioactives for cancer treatment: Experimental evidence and their mechanism(s) of action

Abstract

Cancer is a complex disease showing rapid increase in its incidence that is often related to (i) increasing old age societies- an outcome of improved standards of living, healthcare and hygiene, and (ii) harmful impact of environment- an outcome of excessive industrialization of lifestyle and use of chemicals. In contrast to normal cells that have strictly regulated division potential controlled by tumor suppressor proteins, cancer cells escape limits on proliferation and divide indefinitely resulting in formation of tumors in the body. These are genetically unstable and yield self-propagating signals leading to progressively aggressive stages that are extremely difficult to treat. Extensive cancer research in last 2-3 decades has generated sensitive and sophisticated technologies for early diagnosis as well as better treatment. However, it still remains a scary and dreadful disease due to high rate of mortality, high toxicity and side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. Since several herbs have been shown to possess anticancer potential, a lot of interest has hence been generated to understand their mechanism of action for cancer prevention and treatment. In this chapter, we provide a basic understanding of cancer, the use of cell culture and modern molecular biology techniques to understand its mechanism(s) and anticancer activity in leaves of Ashwagandha. We found that both alcoholic and water extract possess anticancer bioactives that operate through different signaling pathways in cells providing molecular evidence to the multi-module action and basis of the long-trusted fact that extracts work better than the individual and purified herbal components.