Apoptosis induced by norcantharidin in human tumor cells.

Abstract

The antitumor activity of norcantharidin (NCTD), the demethylated analogue of cantharidin, was studied in the early 1980s in China. NCTD has no side effects on urinary organs which cantharidin has shown and is easier to synthesize, and it can inhibit the proliferation of several tumor cell lines as well as transplanted tumors. Clinical trials with NCTD as a monotherapeutic agent indicated that NCTD had beneficial effects in patients with different kinds of digestive tract cancers, such as primary hepatoma, carcinomas of esophagus and gastric cancer, but no depressive effect on bone marrow cells. NCTD can increase the white blood cell count by stimulating the bone marrow and has some antagonistic effect against leukopenia caused by other agents. The exact cellular and molecular mechanisms of NCTD on tumor cells have not yet been elucidated to date[1-3].