Background: Physalis alkekengi  var. franchetii  is an herb that possesses various ethnopharmacological applications. Herein, our current study focuses on the antitumor effect of a combination of physalins, which are regarded as the most representative secondary metabolites from calyces of Physalis alkekengi  var. franchetii .
Materials and Methods: We mainly investigated the antitumor activity of the physalins extracted from Physalis alkekengi  var. franchetii  on both solid and hematologic cancers. The main cells used in this study were NCI-H1975 and U266 cells. The major assays used were the CCK-8 assay, Western blot analyses, immunofluorescence assay and Annexin V assay, and a xenograft mouse model was used.
Results: The results showed that physalins exhibited a strong antitumoural effect on both non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and multiple myeloma (MM) cells by suppressing constitutive STAT3 activity and further inhibiting the downstream target gene expression induced by STAT3 signaling, which resulted in the enhanced apoptosis of tumor cells. Moreover, physalins significantly reduced tumor growth in xenograft models of lung cancer.
Conclusion: Collectively, these findings demonstrated that the physalins from Physalis alkekengi  var. franchetii  may potentially act as cancer preventive or chemotherapeutic agents for NSCLC and MM by inhibiting the STAT3 signaling pathway. The present study served as a promising guide to further explore the precise mechanism of Physalis alkekengi  var. franchetii  in cancer treatment.
Keywords: Physalis , apoptosis, non-small cell lung carcinoma, multiple myeloma, STAT3