Research Progress on Anti-tumor Mechanism of Artesunate Combined Drugs

Artesunate (ART) is a semi-synthetic artemisinin derivative of hemiterpene lactones, which is widely used in clinical antimalarial therapy. In recent years, studies have shown that artesunate also has anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-fibrosis, antiviral, antibacterial, immunomodulatory and other pharmacological activities. Artesunate can play an anti-tumor role by inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, invasion and migration, promoting tumor cell apoptosis and blocking cell cycle. At the same time, when combined with other anti-tumor drugs, it can enhance the anti-tumor efficacy, shorten the duration of administration, reduce the dose and adverse reactions. In this paper, the main keywords of "artesunate", "pharmacology", "anti-tumor" and "combined drug" were searched and integrated in Pubmed, Web of Science and CNKI electronic databases to review the anti-tumor mechanism of artesunate combined with other drugs in recent 5 years. The prospect of clinical application of artesunate as an antitumor drug was prospected to provide some theoretical basis for further rational development and utilization of artesunate and new drug research and development.