Lichens: A Cure for Cancer?

As the current overseer of recent lichen literature, I have noticed a number of articles that have come out in the past year or so demonstrating the anticancer effects of lichen compounds, specifically usnic acid.

Here are a few recent titles with links to articles:

Lichen secondary metabolites are responsible for induction of apoptosis in HT-29 and A2780 human cancer cell lines

Usnic acid inhibits breast tumor angiogenesis and growth by suppressing VEGFR2-mediated AKT and ERK1/2 signaling pathways

Usnic acid inhibits growth and induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human lung carcinoma a549 cells

It will be fascinating to see where this might lead!

- Brendan