Editing Cantharidin (section)

===Bioactivities===
Cantharidin appears to have some effect in the topical treatment of [[cutaneous leishmaniasis]] in animal models.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Ghaffarifar F | title = Leishmania major: in vitro and in vivo anti-leishmanial effect of cantharidin | journal = Experimental Parasitology | volume = 126 | issue = 2 | pages = 126–129 | date = October 2010 | pmid = 20435039 | doi = 10.1016/j.exppara.2010.04.004 | doi-access = free }}</ref> In addition to topical medical applications, cantharidin and its analogs are of particular interest for oncological applications as they may have toxic activity against cancer cells.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Ratcliffe NA, Mello CB, Garcia ES, Butt TM, Azambuja P | title = Insect natural products and processes: new treatments for human disease | journal = Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | volume = 41 | issue = 10 | pages = 747–769 | date = October 2011 | pmid = 21658450 | doi = 10.1016/j.ibmb.2011.05.007 | bibcode = 2011IBMB...41..747R }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Chen YN, Cheng CC, Chen JC, Tsauer W, Hsu SL | title = Norcantharidin-induced apoptosis is via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase and c-Jun-NH2-terminal kinase signaling pathways in human hepatoma HepG2 cells | journal = British Journal of Pharmacology | volume = 140 | issue = 3 | pages = 461–470 | date = October 2003 | pmid = 12970086 | pmc = 1574052 | doi = 10.1038/sj.bjp.0705461 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhang C, Peng Y, Wang F, Tan X, Liu N, Fan S, Wang D, Zhang L, Liu D, Wang T, Wang S, Zhou Y, Su Y, Cheng T, Zhuang Z, Shi C | title = A synthetic cantharidin analog for the enhancement of doxorubicin suppression of stem cell-derived aggressive sarcoma | journal = Biomaterials | volume = 31 | issue = 36 | pages = 9535–9543 | date = December 2010 | pmid = 20875681 | doi = 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2010.08.059 }}</ref>
Laboratory studies with cultured tumor cells suggest that this activity may be the result of [[PP2A]] inhibition.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Dorn DC, Kou CA, Png KJ, Moore MA | title = The effect of cantharidins on leukemic stem cells | journal = International Journal of Cancer | volume = 124 | issue = 9 | pages = 2186–2199 | date = May 2009 | pmid = 19123473 | doi = 10.1002/ijc.24157 | s2cid = 38088568 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Li W, Xie L, Chen Z, Zhu Y, Sun Y, Miao Y, Xu Z, Han X | title = Cantharidin, a potent and selective PP2A inhibitor, induces an oxidative stress-independent growth inhibition of pancreatic cancer cells through G2/M cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis | journal = Cancer Science | volume = 101 | issue = 5 | pages = 1226–1233 | date = May 2010 | pmid = 20331621 | doi = 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2010.01523.x | s2cid = 24345174 | doi-access = free | pmc = 11158714 }}</ref>

Recent research has identified many other pathways in cancer cells that may be interfered with by cantharidin. Generally, cantharidin's anticancer targets include numerous transcription factors, protein kinases, growth factors, and inflammatory cytokines.<ref name="Jin_2023" /> Cantharidin's general lack of target specificity in cancer cells and toxic effects towards healthy cells are limiting for clinical oncological applications.