Description
Lycorine is an alkaloid found in plants in the Amaryllidaceae family; it exhibits antifungal, anti-parasitic, and anticancer activities. Lycorine inhibits protein synthesis by preventing amino acid incorporation info proteins, potentially through the inhibition of peptidyltransferases. Lycorine inhibits the growth of many fungi, including Fusarium. Additionally, lycorine induces cell cycle arrest and cell death in Trichomonas. This compound also induces G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest, inhibits activity of histone deacetylases (HDACs), upregulates expression of p53 and p21, downregulates expression of cyclin D1 and CDK4, and inhibits growth in chromic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells.