Tissue fibrosis and cancer both lead to high morbidity and mortality worldwide; thus, effective therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. Because drug resistance has been widely reported in fibrotic tissue and cancer, developing a strategy to discover novel targets for targeted drug intervention is necessary for the effective treatment of fibrosis and cancer. Although many factors lead to fibrosis and cancer, pathophysiological analysis has demonstrated that tissue fibrosis and cancer share a common process of epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT). EMT is associated with many mediators, including transcription factors (Snail, zinc‐finger E‐box‐binding protein and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3), signaling pathways (transforming growth factor‐β1, RAC‐α serine/threonine‐protein kinase, Wnt, nuclear factor‐kappa B, peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor, Notch, and RAS), RNA‐binding proteins (ESRP1 and ESRP2) and microRNAs. Therefore, drugs targeting EMT may be a promising therapy against both fibrosis and tumors. A large number of compounds that are synthesized or derived from natural products and their derivatives suppress the EMT by targeting these mediators in fibrosis and cancer. By targeting EMT, these compounds exhibited anticancer effects in multiple cancer types, and some of them also showed antifibrotic effects. Therefore, drugs targeting EMT not only have both antifibrotic and anticancer effects but also exert effective therapeutic effects on multiorgan fibrosis and cancer, which provides effective therapy against fibrosis and cancer. Taken together, the results highlighted in this review provide new concepts for discovering new antifibrotic and antitumor drugs.

中文翻译：

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上皮-间质转化的小分子抑制剂，用于治疗癌症和纤维化。

组织纤维化和癌症均导致全球高发病率和高死亡率。因此，迫切需要有效的治疗策略。由于已经在纤维化组织和癌症中广泛报道了耐药性，因此开发一种策略来发现靶向药物干预的新靶点对于有效治疗纤维化和癌症是必要的。尽管许多因素导致纤维化和癌症，但病理生理学分析表明组织纤维化和癌症具有上皮-间质转化（EMT）的共同过程。EMT与许多介体有关，包括转录因子（蜗牛，锌指E-box结合蛋白以及信号转导和转录激活剂3），信号传导途径（转化生长因子-β1，RAC-α丝氨酸/苏氨酸-蛋白激酶） ，Wnt，核因子κB，过氧化物酶体增殖物激活的受体，Notch和RAS），RNA结合蛋白（ESRP1和ESRP2）和microRNA。因此，靶向EMT的药物可能是针对纤维化和肿瘤的有前途的疗法。大量从天然产物合成或衍生的化合物及其衍生物通过靶向这些介导的纤维化和癌症来抑制EMT。通过靶向EMT，这些化合物在多种癌症类型中均表现出抗癌作用，其中一些还表现出抗纤维化作用。因此，靶向EMT的药物不仅具有抗纤维化和抗癌作用，而且还对多器官纤维化和癌症发挥有效的治疗作用，从而提供了针对纤维化和癌症的有效疗法。在一起