Withanone-rich combination of Ashwagandha withanolides restricts metastasis and angiogenesis through hnRNP-K.

Ashwagandha is an important herb used in the Indian system of traditional home medicine, Ayurveda. Alcoholic extract (i-Extract) from its leaves and its component, withanone, were previously shown to possess anticancer activity. In the present study, we developed a combination of withanone and withaferin A, major withanolides in the i-Extract, that retained the selective cancer cell killing activity and found that it also has significant antimigratory, -invasive, and -angiogenic activities, in both in vitro and in vivo assays. Using bioinformatics and biochemical approaches, we demonstrate that these phytochemicals caused downregulation of migration-promoting proteins hnRNP-K, VEGF, and metalloproteases and hence are candidate natural drugs for metastatic cancer therapy. ©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.