The phytochemical plumbagin: mechanism behind its “pleiotropic” nature and potential as an anticancer treatment

Chemotherapeutics are most often used to treat cancer, but side effects, drug resistance, and toxicity often compromise their effectiveness. In contrast, phytocompound plumbagin possesses a distinct pleiotropic nature, targeting multiple signaling pathways, such as ROS generation, cell death, cellular proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance, and is shown to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs. Plumbagin has been shown to act synergistically with various chemotherapeutic drugs and enhance their efficacy in drug-resistant cancers. The pleiotropic nature is believed to be due to plumbagin's unique structure, which contains a naphthoquinone ring and a hydroxyl group responsible for plumbagin's various biological responses. Despite limitations such as restricted bioavailability and delivery, recent developments aim to address these challenges and harness the potential of plumbagin as an anticancer therapeutics. This review delves into the structural aspect of the plumbagin molecule contributing to its pleiotropic nature, explores the diverse mechanism that it targets, and discusses emerging strategies to overcome its limitations.