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Thyroid cancer (TC) and thyroid autoimmune disorders (AITD) are among the most common diseases in the general population, with higher incidence in women. Chronic inflammation and autoimmunity play a pivotal role in carcinogenesis. Some studies, indeed, have pointed out the presence of AITD as a risk factor for TC, although this issue remains controversial. Prevention of autoimmune disease and cancer is the ultimate goal for clinicians and scientists, but it is not always feasible. Thus, new treatments, that overcome the current barriers to prevention and treatment of TC and AITD are needed. Alkaloids are secondary plant metabolites endowed with several biological activities including anticancer and immunomodulatory properties. In this perspective, alkaloids may represent a promising source of prophylactic and therapeutic agents for TC and AITD. This review encompasses the current published literature on alkaloids effects on TC and AITD, with a specific focus on the pathways involved in TC and AITD development and progression.

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy and the incidence is rising. Currently, there are no effective treatments for patients with advanced forms of thyroid cancer. Anaplastic thyroid represents the most severe form of the disease with 95% mortality at 6 months. It is therefore critical to better understand the mechanisms involved in thyroid cancer development and progression in order to develop more effective therapeutic strategies. Cell lines derived from thyroid tumors represent a critical tool to understand the oncogenic mechanisms driving thyroid cancer, as well as preclinical tools to study the efficacy of new therapies in vitro and in vivo. For thyroid cancer, the development of new therapies has been hampered by the lack of thyroid cancer cell lines in the widely used NCI-60 panel which has been used to screen over 100,000 anti-cancer drugs. In addition, the recent discovery that ~20 out of 40 existing thyroid cancer cell lines are either redundant or misidentified with cell lines of other tissue lineages has further hampered progress in the field. Of the available cell lines, 23 were identified as unique and presumably of thyroid origin based on the expression of thyroid-specific genes. Thus, there is a great need for validated thyroid cancer cell lines representing different stages of disease in addition to distinct oncogenic mutations. New, authenticated thyroid cancer cell lines are beginning to be developed, adding to the tools available to study genes and pathways important for thyroid cancer pathogenesis. In summary, the use of validated thyroid cancer cell lines which closely recapitulate disease is critical for the discovery of new drug targets and ultimately new therapies.