CASP3 and neoplasm: In NSCLC A549 and NCI-H226 cells, kushenol Z exerted tumor suppressive effects by enhancing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and activating caspase-3/9, resulting in mitochondrial apoptosis while upregulating CHOP and activating caspase-7/12 expression to trigger the ERS apoptotic pathway; additionally, kushenol Z exerted anti-proliferative activity by inhibiting cAMP-phosphodiesterases and Akt expression from suppressing the mTOR pathway (Chen et al., 2019).