Understanding the function of the tumor microenvironment, and compounds from marine organisms for breast cancer therapy

Table 4 Marine compounds with potential anticancer activity and chemotherapeutics against breast cancer

Marine compound	Chemical nature	Mechanism of action	Ref.
Elisidepsin	Cyclic peptide	With combination of cisplatin or paclitaxel showed synergistic toxicity on BC cells by reducing the phosphorylation of Akt and inhibiting the MAPK pathway via targeting ErbB expression	Moghtaderi et al[74]
Sipholenol A	Triterpene	Increased the sensitivity of paclitaxel in BC cells by inhibiting P-gp and MRP1	Resmi et al[104] and Mohamed et al[105]
Permethyl ningalin B	Pyrrole-containingcompound	Sensitized BC cells to paclitaxel by inhibiting drug efflux activity of P-gp and increasing drug accumulation	Resmi et al[104] and Mohamed et al[105]
Trabectedin	Alkaloid	Combination with cisplatin or paclitaxel or doxorubicin showed an additive effect in the preclinical system	Chen et al[75]
Marine polysaccharide	Polysaccharide	In combination with cisplatin, synergistically inhibited the proliferation and migration by blocking the MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression	Chen et al[75]
Iturin A	Cyclo-lipopeptide	In combination with docetaxel, substantially sensitized docetaxel-resistant TNBC cells by reducing proliferation via massive arresting at the G1 stage and activating caspase 3 as well as inhibiting Akt and its downstream signaling pathways	Dey et al[119]
Renieramycin M	Tetrahydro-isoquinoline	Sensitized MCF-7 cells synergistically to doxorubicin by promoting doxorubicin-induced DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis via downregulating ErbB/PI3K-Akt, integrin, and focal adhesion signaling	Tun et al[120]
Sulfated polysaccharide	-	In combination with pH-sensitive DOX releasing nanosystem inhibited growth and metastasis of BC cells in tumor-bearing mice	Zhang et al[121]
Papuamine	Pentacyclic alkaloid	Inhibited colony formation of BC cells by targeting activation of JNK	Kanno et al[122]

BC: Breast cancer; MAPK: Mitogen-activated protein kinase; P-gp: P-glycoprotein; MRP: Multidrug-resistant associated protein; MMP: Matrix metalloproteinase; TNBC: Triple-negative breast cancer; DOX: Doxorubicin; JNK: c-Jun N-terminal kinase.