Database Query Results : Betulinic acid, , RadioS

BetA, Betulinic acid: Click to Expand ⟱

Features:

Betulinic acid "buh-TOO-li-nik acid" is a natural compound with antiretroviral, anti malarial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. It is found in the bark of several plants, such as white birch, ber tree and rosemary, and has a complex mode of action against tumor cells.
-Betulinic acid is a naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpenoid
-vitro concentrations range from 1–100 µM, in vivo studies in rodents have generally used doses from 10–100 mg/kg
Precursor: Betulin, via oxidation at C-28
Lipophilicity: High (poor aqueous solubility)
-half-life reports vary 3-5 hrs?. Reported half-life varies by formulation and species; several studies report multi-hour systemic persistence.
BioAv -hydrophobic molecule with relatively poor water solubility.

Main Cancer action
-Direct mitochondrial targeting in cancer cells
-Minimal effect on normal cells

Key pathways
-Mitochondrial membrane permeabilization
-ROS-mediated apoptosis
-Caspase-independent death

Chemo relevance: Generally compatible, Not a redox buffer

Pathways:
- often induce ROS production
- ROS↑ related: MMP↓(ΔΨm), ER Stress↑, UPR↑, GRP78↑, Ca+2↑, Cyt‑c↑, Caspases↑, DNA damage↑, cl-PARP↑, HSP↓
- Lowers AntiOxidant defense in Cancer Cells(Often associated with reduced redox buffering capacity in tumor cells (e.g., GSH depletion); NRF2 direction model-dependent.): NRF2↓, SOD↓, GSH↓
- May Raise AntiOxidant defense in Normal Cells: NRF2↑, SOD↑, GSH↑, Catalase↑ Reports suggest relative sparing of normal cells and preservation of antioxidant capacity in some models
- lowers Inflammation : NF-kB↓(typ), COX2↓, p38↓ (context-dependent; often stress-activated), Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines : IL-1β↓, TNF-α↓, IL-6↓, IL-8↓
- inhibit Growth/Metastases : , MMPs↓, MMP2↓, MMP9↓, TIMP2, IGF-1↓, VEGF↓, ROCK1↓, FAK↓, NF-κB↓, TGF-β↓, α-SMA↓, ERK↓
- reactivate genes thereby inhibiting cancer cell growth : P53↑, HSP↓(model-dependent), Sp proteins↓,
- cause Cell cycle arrest : TumCCA↑, cyclin D1↓, CDK2↓, CDK4↓,
- inhibits Migration/Invasion : TumCMig↓, TumCI↓, FAK↓, ERK↓, EMT↓, TOP1↓,
- inhibits glycolysis (secondary to mitochondrial stress) ATP depletion : HIF-1α↓, PKM2↓, cMyc↓, GLUT1↓, LDH↓, LDHA↓, HK2↓, PFKs↓, PDKs↓, HK2↓, ECAR↓, GRP78↑(ER stress), GlucoseCon↓
- inhibits angiogenesis↓ : VEGF↓, HIF-1α↓, EGFR↓,
- inhibits Cancer Stem Cells in some studies : CSC↓, GLi1↓, β-catenin↓, OCT4↓,
- Others: PI3K↓(typ), AKT↓(typ), JAK↓, STAT↓, β-catenin↓, AMPK↓(AMPK is often activated during metabolic stress), ERK↓, JNK,
- Synergies: chemo-sensitization, chemoProtective, RadioSensitizer, Others(review target notes), Neuroprotective, Cognitive, Renoprotection, Hepatoprotective, CardioProtective,
- Selectivity: Cancer Cells vs Normal Cells

Rank	Pathway / Axis	Cancer Cells	Normal Cells	TSF	Primary Effect	Notes / Interpretation
1	Intrinsic apoptosis (mitochondrial-mediated)	↑ mitochondria depolarization; ↑ cytochrome-c; ↑ caspase-9/3 activation	↔ limited activation (higher exposure required)	R, G	Execution of apoptosis	Betulinic acid (BA) is well known to engage the intrinsic apoptotic cascade, typically downstream of redox and signaling perturbations.
2	ROS / redox stress	↑ ROS (P→R)	↔ basal or antioxidant adaptation in some contexts	P, R	Stress induction	Many studies report ROS elevation in tumor cells exposed to BA; the direction and magnitude vary by cell type and exposure.
3	Mitochondrial permeability transition / ΔΨm loss	ΔΨm ↓ (R→G)	↔ maintained	R, G	Mitochondrial failure	Often observed as an early event preceding caspase activation in apoptosis studies.
4	PI3K / AKT / mTOR survival axis	↓ PI3K/AKT signaling; ↓ phospho-mTOR	↔	R, G	Survival/growth suppression	Betulinic acid often downregulates pro-survival kinase signaling, sensitizing cells to apoptosis and cytostasis.
5	NF-κB signaling	↓ NF-κB activity	↔	R, G	Pro-survival/inflammatory transcription suppression	Reduction in NF-κB activity limits pro-survival gene expression; supports sensitization to stressors.
6	MAPK re-wiring (JNK / ERK / p38)	Stress-MAPK shifts; JNK/p38 often ↑; ERK context-dependent	↔	P, R	Early stress signaling	MAPK responses vary by model, with stress-associated p38/JNK often activated and ERK modulation variable.
7	Cell-cycle checkpoints (p21, p27, cyclins)	↑ p21/p27; ↑ G1/S or G2/M arrest	↔	G	Proliferation arrest	BA often induces cell-cycle blockade, slowing proliferation before apoptosis commitment.
8	Angiogenic signaling (VEGF & related)	↓ VEGF; anti-angiogenic outputs	↔	G	Anti-angiogenic support	Typically seen at the level of reduced pro-angiogenic factor expression or secretion in longer-term assays.
9	EMT / invasion / migration programs (MMPs)	↓ MMP2/MMP9; ↓ migration/invasion	↔	G	Anti-invasive phenotype	Often measured as reduced invasive capacity and decreased expression of EMT markers in later time points.
10	Autophagy modulation	↑ LC3-II; ↑ autophagic flux (model dependent)	↔	G	Adaptive clearance / cell fate shift	BA can modulate autophagy, which may either sensitize cells to death pathways or reflect adaptive stress responses.

Time-Scale Flag (TSF): P / R / G

P: 0–30 min (primary/physical-chemical effects; rapid kinase/redox signaling)
R: 30 min–3 hr (acute redox and stress-response activation)
G: >3 hr (gene-regulatory adaptation and phenotypic outcomes)

RadioS, RadioSensitizer: Click to Expand ⟱

Source:

Type:

A radiosensitizer is an agent that makes cancer cells more sensitive to the damaging effects of radiation therapy. By using a radiosensitizer, clinicians aim to enhance the effectiveness of radiation treatment by either increasing the damage incurred by tumor cells or by interfering with the cancer cells’ repair mechanisms. This can potentially allow for lower doses of radiation, reduced side effects, or improved treatment outcomes.
Pathways that help Radiosensitivity: downregulating HIF-1α, increase SIRT1, Txr

List of Natural Products with radiosensitizing properties:
-Curcumin:modulate NF-κB, STAT3 and has been shown in preclinical studies to enhance the effects of radiation by inhibiting cell survival pathways.
-Resveratrol:
-EGCG:
-Quercetin:
-Genistein:
-Parthenolide:

How radiosensitizers inhibit the thioredoxin (Trx) system in cellular contexts. Notable radiosensitizers, including:
-gold nanoparticles (GNPs),
-gold triethylphosphine cyanide ([Au(SCN) (PEt3)]),
-auranofin, ceria nanoparticles (CONPs),
-curcumin and its derivatives,
-piperlongamide,
-indolequinone derivatives,
-micheliolide,
-motexafin gadolinium, and
-ethane selenide selenidazole derivatives (SeDs)

Scientific Papers found: Click to Expand⟱

2747-

BetA,

Betulinic acid, a natural compound with potent anticancer effects

Review,

Var,

selectivity↑, potently effective against a wide variety of cancer cells, also those derived from therapy-resistant and refractory tumors, whereas it has been found to be relatively nontoxic for healthy cells
Cyt‑c↑, induces Bax/Bak-independent cytochrome-c release.
*toxicity↓, In general, BetA is concluded to be less toxic to cells from healthy tissues.
TOP1↓, topoisomerase I/II
NF-kB↓, transcription factor NF-kB
ROS↑, Consistently, in glioma cells BetA-induced ROS generation
RadioS↑, Treatment with BetA in combination with irradiation resulted in additive growth inhibition of melanoma cells.
ChemoSen↑, BetA cooperated with anticancer drugs, doxorubicin and etoposide, to induce apoptosis and to inhibit clonogenic survival in SHEP neuroblastoma cells

2752-

BetA,

Betulinic acid: a natural product with anticancer activity

Review,

Var,

selectivity↑, nontransformed cells of different origin, e.g., fibroblasts, melanocytes, neuronal cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes, have been reported to be much more resistant to the cytotoxic effect of BA than cancer cells
ChemoSen↑, BA was found to cooperate with various chemotherapeutic drugs, including doxorubicin, etoposide, cisplatin, taxol, and actinomycin D, to induce apoptosis and to inhibit clonogenic survival of tumor cells
RadioS↑, These reports suggest that using BetA as sensitizer in chemotherapy-, radiotherapy-, or TRAIL-based combination regimens may be a novel strategy to enhance the efficacy of anticancer therapy.
MMP↓, BA directly induces loss of mitochondrial membrane potenti
cl‑Casp3↑, BA, induced cleavage of both caspases-8 and -3 in cytosolic extracts.
Cyt‑c↑, cytochrome c, released from mitochondria undergoing BA-mediated permeability transition, activated caspase-3 but not caspase-8 in a cell-free system.
ROS↑, Cleavage of caspases-3 and -8 was preceded by disturbance of mitochondrial membrane potential and by generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS).
NF-kB↑, BA is a potent activator of NF-kB in a variety of tumor cell lines.
TOP1↓, BA blocks the catalytic activity of topoisomerase I by abrogating the inter- action of the enzyme and the DNA substrate

2729-

BetA,

Betulinic acid in the treatment of tumour diseases: Application and research progress

Review,

Var,

ChemoSen↑, Betulinic acid can increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to other chemotherapy drugs
mt-ROS↑, BA has antitumour activity, and its mechanisms of action mainly include the induction of mitochondrial oxidative stress
STAT3↓, inhibition of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and nuclear factor-κB signalling pathways.
NF-kB↓,
selectivity↑, A main advantage of BA and its derivatives is that they are cytotoxic to different human tumour cells, while cytotoxicity is much lower in normal cells.
*toxicity↓, It can kill cancer cells but has no obvious effect on normal cells and is also nontoxic to other organs in xenograft mice at a dose of 500 mg/kg
eff↑, BA combined with chemotherapy drugs, such as platinum and mithramycin A, can induce apoptosis in tumour cells
GRP78/BiP↑, In animal xenograft tumour models, BA enhanced the expression of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78)
MMP2↓, reduced the levels of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), such as MMP-2 and MMP-9, in lung metastatic lesions of breast cancer, indicating that BA can reduce the invasiveness of breast cancer in vivo and block epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT
P90RSK↓,
TumCI↓,
EMT↓,
MALAT1↓, MALAT1, a lncRNA, was downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells treated with BA in vivo,
Glycolysis↓, Suppressing aerobic glycolysis of cancer cells by GRP78/β-Catenin/c-Myc signalling pathways
AMPK↑, activating AMPK signaling pathway
Sp1/3/4↓, inhibiting Sp1. BA at 20 mg/kg/d, the tumour volume and weight were significantly reduced, and the expression levels of Sp1, Sp3, and Sp4 in tumour tissues were lower than those in control mouse tissues
Hif1a↓, Suppressing the hypoxia-induced accumulation of HIF-1α and expression of HIF target genes
angioG↓, PC3: Having anti-angiogenesis effect
NF-kB↑, LNCaP, DU145 — Inducing apoptosis and NF-κB pathway
NF-kB↓, U266 — Inhibiting NF-κB pathway.
MMP↓, BA produces ROS and reduces mitochondrial membrane potential; the mitochondrial permeability transition pore of the mitochondrial membrane plays an important role in apoptosis signal transduction.
Cyt‑c↑, Mitochondria release cytochrome C and increase the levels of Caspase-9 and Caspase-3, inducing cell apoptosis.
Casp9↑,
Casp3↑,
RadioS↑, BA could be a promising drug for increasing radiosensitization in oral squamous cell carcinoma radiotherapy.
PERK↑, BA treatment increased the activation of the protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)/C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) apoptosis pathway and decreased the expression of Sp1.
CHOP↑,
*toxicity↓, BA at a concentration of 50 μg/ml did not inhibit the growth of normal peripheral blood lymphocytes, indicating that the toxicity of BA was at least 1000 times less than that of doxorubicin

2731-

BetA,

Betulinic Acid for Glioblastoma Treatment: Reality, Challenges and Perspectives

Review,

GBM,

Review,

Park,

Review,

AD,

BBB↑, Notably, its ability to cross the blood–brain barrier addresses a significant challenge in treating neurological pathologies.
*GSH↑, BA can also dramatically reduce catalepsy and stride length, while increasing the brain’s dopamine content, glutathione activity, and catalase activity in hemiparkinsonian rats
*Catalase↑,
*motorD↑,
*neuroP↑, in Alzheimer’s disease rat models, it can improve neurobehavioral impairments . BA has exhibited great neuroprotective properties.
*cognitive↑, BA improves cognitive ability and neurotransmitter levels, and protects from brain damage by lowering reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels
*ROS↓,
*antiOx↑, enhancing brain tissue’s antioxidant capacity, and preventing the release of inflammatory cytokines
*Inflam↓,
MMP↓, BA can decrease the mitochondrial outer membrane potential (MOMP)
STAT3↓, The compound can inhibit the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 signaling pathways, involved in differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis formation, angiogenesis, and metabolism, and the NF-kB signaling pathway,
NF-kB↓,
Sp1/3/4↓, BA has shown an ability to control cancer growth through the modulation of Sp transcription factors, inhibit DNA topoisomerase
TOP1↓,
EMT↓, inhibit the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)
Hif1a↓, BA has also been associated with an antiangiogenic response under hypoxia conditions, through the STAT3/hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway
VEGF↓,
ChemoSen↑, BA has shown great potential as an adjuvant to therapy since its use combined with standard treatment of chemotherapy and irradiation can enhance their cytotoxic effect on cancer cells
RadioS↑,
BioAv↓, Despite having great potential as a therapeutic agent, it is hard for BA to fulfill the requirements for adequate water solubility, maintaining both significant cytotoxicity and selectivity for tumor cells.

2737-

BetA,

Multiple molecular targets in breast cancer therapy by betulinic acid

Review,

Var,

TumCP↓, Betulinic acid (BA), a pipeline anticancer drug, exerts anti-proliferative effects on breast cancer cells is mainly through inhibition of cyclin and topoisomerase expression, leading to cell cycle arrest.
Cyc↓,
TOP1↓,
TumCCA↑,
angioG↓, anti-angiogenesis effect by inhibiting the expression of transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), specificity protein (Sp) transcription factors, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling.
NF-kB↓, Inhibition of NF-kB signaling pathway
Sp1/3/4↓,
VEGF↓,
MMPs↓, inhibiting the expression of matrix metalloproteases
ChemoSen↑, Synergistically interactions of BA with other chemotherapeutics are also described in the literature.
eff↑, BA is highly lipid soluble [74,75], and it readily passes through membranes, including plasma and mitochondrial membranes. BA acts directly on mitochondria
MMP↓, decreases mitochondrial outer membrane potential (MOMP), leading to increased outer membrane permeability, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS),
ROS↑,
Bcl-2↓, reducing expression of anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2, Bcl-XL and Mcl-1
Bcl-xL↓,
Mcl-1↓,
lipid-P↑, BA inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells via lipid peroxidation resulting from the generation of ROS
RadioS↑, The cytotoxicity effect of BA on glioblastoma cells is not strong; however, some studies indicate that the combination of BA and radiotherapy could represent an advancement in treatment of glioblastoma [
eff↑, BA and thymoquinone inhibit MDR and induce cell death in MCF-7 breast cancer cells by suppressing BCRP [

* indicates research on normal cells as opposed to diseased cells
Total Research Paper Matches: 5

Pathway results for Effect on Cancer / Diseased Cells:

Pathway results for Effect on Normal Cells:

Redox & Oxidative Stress ⓘ

antiOx↑, 1, Catalase↑, 1, GSH↑, 1, ROS↓, 1,

Immune & Inflammatory Signaling ⓘ

Inflam↓, 1,

Functional Outcomes ⓘ

cognitive↑, 1, motorD↑, 1, neuroP↑, 1, toxicity↓, 3,
Total Targets: 9

Scientific Paper Hit Count for: RadioS, RadioSensitizer

5 Betulinic acid

Query results interpretion may depend on "conditions" listed in the research papers.
Such Conditions may include : 
  -low or high Dose
  -format for product, such as nano of lipid formations
  -different cell line effects
  -synergies with other products 
  -if effect was for normal or cancerous cells

Filter Conditions: Pro/AntiFlg:%  IllCat:%  CanType:%  Cells:%  prod#:42  Target#:1107  State#:%  Dir#:%
  wNotes=on  sortOrder:rid,rpid

Database Query Results : Betulinic acid, , RadioS

Pathway results for Effect on Cancer / Diseased Cells:

Redox & Oxidative Stress ⓘ

Mitochondria & Bioenergetics ⓘ

Core Metabolism/Glycolysis ⓘ

Cell Death ⓘ

Kinase & Signal Transduction ⓘ

Protein Folding & ER Stress ⓘ

Cell Cycle & Senescence ⓘ

Proliferation, Differentiation & Cell State ⓘ

Migration ⓘ

Angiogenesis & Vasculature ⓘ

Barriers & Transport ⓘ

Immune & Inflammatory Signaling ⓘ

Drug Metabolism & Resistance ⓘ

Pathway results for Effect on Normal Cells:

Redox & Oxidative Stress ⓘ

Immune & Inflammatory Signaling ⓘ

Functional Outcomes ⓘ

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