Amaryllidaceae Family Alkaloids as Potential Drugs for Cancer Treatment

Abstract

This article summarizes basic information about the Amaryllidaceae alkaloids with cytotoxic and apoptosis-inducing potential in diverse cancer cell lines and tumour xenografts. The review focuses on molecular mechanisms leading to cell death mediated by Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. Since some of them possess high cytotoxic efficiency in cancer cell lines study of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids could generate chemical structures for potential drugs. The biological activities that could be useful especially in topical cancer treatment are indicated. We have tested cyto­toxic and antiproliferative activities of lycorine, galanthine and tazzetine in breast adenocarcinoma cells SK-BR-3 using label-free and real-time monitoring of the xCELLigence cell viability system.