Luteolin has multiple pharmacological activities, and plants rich in luteolin are often used as traditional Chinese medicine to treat diseases. With the in-depth study of luteolin, it was found that it has anti-tumor effects such as inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, inducing tumor cell apoptosis, and sensitizing the activity of anticancer drugs. It also has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and protective effects on the nervous system.
Luteolin is a PDE4 inhibitor, phosphodiesterase inhibitor 2 and interleukin 6 inhibitor. It can significantly reverse xylazine/ketamine-induced anesthesia in mice. 4 Preclinical studies have shown that luteolin may have pharmacological effects, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anti-cancer. Preliminary studies have found that luteolin can inhibit angiogenesis-induced apoptosis, affect the development of tumors in animal models, reduce tumor growth rate, and increase the cytotoxicity of certain anticancer drugs to tumor cells, indicating that luteolin may be a potential cancer chemoprevention drug and chemotherapy drug.
The mechanism of luteolin’s biological activity may be to regulate the level of ROS, inhibit topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II, reduce the activity of NF-κB and AP-1 transcription factors, stabilize p53. and inhibit the activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinase, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) and human epidermal growth factor receptor II.