中医药调控TGF-β通路干预上皮-间质转化在肿瘤治疗中的应用

Applications of traditional Chinese medicine targeting TGF-β pathway in EMT modulation for cancer therapy

关键词:  癌症  中药  转化生长因子-β  上皮-间质转化  作用机制

Key words:  cancer  traditional Chinese medicine  TGF-β  EMT  mechanism of action

摘要:

肿瘤的进展与转移是导致癌症患者死亡的主要原因，也是当前临床治疗面临的核心挑战。转化生长因子-β（TGF-β）/上皮-间质转化（EMT）信号轴被确认为驱动肿瘤恶性进程的核心环节。通过诱导EMT，显著增强肿瘤细胞的迁移、侵袭能力，并促进干细胞特性、免疫逃逸及治疗抵抗。因此，靶向干预TGF-β/EMT轴已经成为抗肿瘤研究的关键方向。在此背景下，越来越多的研究聚焦于中药单体及复方通过干预TGF-β通路影响肿瘤进展与转移的作用机制。诸多研究表明，中药单体及复方能够通过多靶点、多层次调控该信号网络，有效逆转EMT进程，抑制肿瘤侵袭转移。文章系统回顾了TGF-β信号通路在肿瘤发病与进展中的角色及其潜在机制，并重点探讨了近年来中医药通过调控该通路干预EMT，进而抑制多种类型肿瘤进展的研究现状，以期为TGF-β通路的相关实验研究与临床治疗提供新的思路与方法。

Abstract:

The progression and metastasis of tumors are the primary causes of death for cancer patients and also the core challenge in current clinical treatment. The TGF-β/EMT signaling axis has been identified as the core component driving the malignant process of tumors. The pathway significantly enhances the migration and invasion abilities of tumor cells and promotes stem cell characteristics，immune evasion，and treatment resistance by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Therefore，targeting the TGF-β/EMT axis has become a key direction in anti-tumor research. In this context，an increasing number of studies focus on the mechanisms by which single components and compound formulas of traditional Chinese medicine affect tumor progression and metastasis by interfering with the TGF-β pathway. Numerous studies have shown that single components and compound formulas of traditional Chinese medicine can effectively reverse the EMT process and inhibit tumor invasion and metastasis by multi-target and multi-level regulation of this signaling network. The article systematically reviews the role of the TGF-β signaling pathway in tumor onset and progression and its potential mechanisms，and focuses on the current research status of traditional Chinese medicine regulating this pathway to intervene in epithelial-mesenchymal transition（EMT） and thereby inhibit the progression of various types of tumors，with the aim of providing new ideas and methods for experimental research and clinical treatment related to the TGF-β pathway.