Abstract
Natural products, particularly as anticancer agents, continue to provide prototypes for pharmacologically active compounds. Compared with traditional two-dimensional (2D) approaches, 3D cell cultures have shown a clear role in drug discovery and development as they more closely resemble in vivo cell environments and come closer to capturing the in vivo functions of organs and tissues. The growing interest in using more physiological in vitro cancer models has driven the adoption of 3D cell cultures in evaluating anticancer activities of natural products. Here, we establish a protocol to use a novel 3D culture system to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a plant-based natural compound, in head and neck cancer cells. Our findings reveal that the sensitivity of natural products in 3D culture models may differ markedly from that obtained using 2D cultures, suggesting that 3D models will become a more reliable alternative to minimize misleading data.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by NIH grants R01DE028351 and R03DE028387.
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Shay, C., Teng, Y. (2022). Evaluating the Anticancer Activity of Natural Products Using a Novel 3D Culture Model. In: Guest, P.C. (eds) Physical Exercise and Natural and Synthetic Products in Health and Disease. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2343. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1558-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1558-4_9
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