To discover and develop novel natural compounds, active ingredients, single herbs and combination formulas or prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with therapeutic selectivity that can preferentially kill cancer cells and inhibit the amplification of cancer without significant toxicity is an important area in cancer therapy. A lot of valuable TCMs were applied as alternative or complementary medicines in the United States and Europe. But these TCMs, as one of the main natural resources, were widely used to research and develop new drugs in Asia. In TCMs, some specific herbs, animals, minerals and combination formulas were recorded and exploited due to their active ingredients and specific natural compounds with antitumor activities. The article focused on the antitumor properties of natural compounds and combination formulas or prescriptions in TCMs, described its influence on tumor progression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and revealed its mechanisms of antitumor and inhibitory action. Among the nature compounds, triptolide, berberine, matrine, oxymatrine, kurarinone and deoxypodophyllotoxin (DPT) with specific molecular structures have been separated, purified, and evaluated their antitumor properties in vitro and in vivo. Cancer is a multifactorial and multistep disease, so the treatment effect of combination formulas and prescriptions in TCMs involving multi-targets and multi-signal pathways on tumor may be superior than that of agents targeting a single molecular target alone. Shi Quan Da Bu Tang and Yanshu injection, as well known combination formulas and prescriptions in TCMs, have shown an excellent therapeutic effect on cancer.

Traditional Chinese medicine: a treasured natural resource of anticancer drug research and development.

Matrine (MT) and oxymatrine (OMT), two kinds of alkaloid components found in the roots of Sophora species, have various pharmacological activities and are demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-virus, anti-fibrotic, and cardiovascular protective effects. They are recently proved to have anti-cancer potentials, such as inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, inducing cell cycle arrest, accelerating apoptosis, restraining angiogenesis, inducing cell differentiation, inhibiting cancer metastasis and invasion, reversing multidrug resistance, and preventing or reducing chemotherapy- or radiotherapy-induced toxicity when combined with other chemotherapeutic drugs. In this review, we summarize the recent investigations regarding the anti-cancer activities and possible molecular targets of MT and OMT for cancer prevention and treatment in order to provide clues and references for further study.

Anti-tumor activities of matrine and oxymatrine: literature review

Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I), the major protein component of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) is a multifunctional protein, involved in cholesterol traffic and inflammatory and immune response regulation. Many studies revealing alterations of ApoA-I during the development and progression of various types of cancer suggest that serum ApoA-I levels may represent a useful biomarker contributing to better estimation of cancer risk, early cancer diagnosis, follow up, and prognosis stratification of cancer patients. In addition, recent in vitro and animal studies disclose a more direct, tumor suppressive role of ApoA-I in cancer pathogenesis, which involves anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory mechanisms. Herein, we review recent epidemiologic, clinicopathologic, and mechanistic studies investigating the role of ApoA-I in cancer biology, which suggest that enhancing the tumor suppressive activity of ApoA-I may contribute to better cancer prevention and treatment.

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/11/8/1097/pdf

Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I), Immunity, Inflammation and Cancer

Kushen (Radix Sophorae Flavescentis) has a long history of use for the treatment of tumors, inflammation and other diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) is a mixture of natural compounds extracted from Kushen and Baituling (Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae). The main principles of CKI are matrine (MT) and oxymatrine (OMT) that exhibit a variety of pharmacological activities, including anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-viral, anti-fibrotic and cardiovascular protective effects. Recent evidence shows that these compounds also produce anti-cancer actions, such as inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, inducing cell cycle arrest, accelerating apoptosis, restraining angiogenesis, inducing cell differentiation, inhibiting cancer metastasis and invasion, reversing multidrug resistance, and preventing or reducing chemotherapy- and/or radiotherapy-induced toxicity when combined with chemotherapeutic drugs. In this review, we summarize recent progress in studying the anti-cancer activities of MT, OMT and CKI and their potential molecular targets, which provide clues and references for further study.

/pdf/anti-tumor-activities-of-active-ingredients-in-compound-2qi79hy5dy.pdf

Anti-tumor activities of active ingredients in Compound Kushen Injection.

The morbidity associated with cancer has rapidly increased in recent years, and in the previous 5 years has had a tendency to be the leading cause of fatality compared with cardiovascular disease. Therefore, effective measures are required with an aim to reduce the incidence. Based on the results of clinical investigation, a multidisciplinary treatment strategy for cancer, which includes radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, targeted therapy and immunotherapy, are prominently used in clinical practice. However, the therapies are insufficient due to multidrug resistance, adverse effects and the presence of the root of the cancer. Therefore, there is a necessity to develop more effective or adjunctive therapies for cancer prevention and treatment. Cancer is now widely recognized as a systemic humoral disease. Similarly, the function of herbal drugs is to modulate the whole body system in a more holistic way. Recently, herbal drugs have been applied to one of the efficient approaches for cancer therapy. Furthermore, there is evidence that various herbal medicines have been proven to be useful and effective in sensitizing the conventional agents against the various factors at the cellular and molecular levels that are associated with the occurrence of cancer and in prolonging survival time, alleviating side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and improving the quality of life in cancer patients.

/pdf/efficacy-of-traditional-chinese-medicine-in-treating-cancer-qoyee4d378.pdf

Efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in treating cancer (Review)

Background and Aim:  Portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) is one of the factors that can affect prognosis and survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, we aimed to find out some biomarkers associated with vascular invasion features of HCC with the method of comparative proteomic analysis.



Methods:  The proteins were extracted from a pair of HCC tissues with PVTT and without PVTT, and then separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Differentially expressed protein spots were identified by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Further analysis of two proteins were completed using real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western-blot in 40 HCC tissues with PVTT (n = 20) and without PVTT (n = 20).



Results:  Among 465 protein spots displayed on the gels, 33 unique proteins (> twofold change, P < 0.01) were identified, including 24 upregulated in HCC tissue without PVTT and nine upregulated in HCC tissue with PVTT. The real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR showed no statistically significant difference between HCC tissues with PVTT and without PVTT for mRNA expressions of protein disulfide-isomerase, A6 (PDI A6) (P = 0.137) and apolipoprotein A-I (Apo A-I) (P = 0.718). However, compared with HCC tissues without PVTT, protein expression of PDI A6 was higher in HCC tissues with PVTT (P < 0.001), while protein expression of Apo A-I was lower in HCC tissues with PVTT (P = 0.012).



Conclusions:  PDI A6 and Apo A-I are closely related to vascular invasion feature of HCC.

Identification of two portal vein tumor thrombosis associated proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma: Protein disulfide-isomerase A6 and apolipoprotein A-I

Impact of intra-operative cholangiography and parenchymal resection to donor liver function in living donor liver transplantation.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjon.2023.02.013

Prognostic factors and role of postoperative radiotherapy in surgically resected thymomas

Oxymatrine, an isolated extract from traditional Chinese herb Sophora Flavescens Ait, has been traditionally used for therapy of anti-hepatitis B virus, anti-inflammation and anti-anaphylaxis. The present study was to investigate the anti-cancer effect of oxymatrine on human pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells, and its possible molecular mechanism. The effect of oxymatrine on the viability and apoptosis was examined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium and flow cytometry analysis. The expression of Bax, Bcl-2, Bcl-x (L/S), Bid, Bad, HIAP-1, HIAP-2, XIAP, NAIP, Livin and Survivin genes was accessed by RT-PCR. The levels of cytochrome c and caspase 3 protein were assessed by Western blotting. Oxymatrine inhibited cell viability and induced apoptosis of PANC-1 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. This was accompanied by down-regulated expression of Livin and Survivin genes while the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was upregulated. Furthermore, oxymatrine treatment led to the release of cytochrome c and activation of caspase-3 proteins. Oxymatrine can induce apoptotic cell death of human pancreatic cancer, which might be attributed to the regulation of Bcl-2 and IAP families, release of mitochondrial cytochrome c and activation of caspase-3.

/pdf/oxymatrine-induces-human-pancreatic-cancer-panc-1-cells-28ccgleo8x.pdf

Oxymatrine induces human pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells apoptosis via regulating expression of Bcl-2 and IAP families, and releasing of cytochrome c.

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Identification of two portal vein tumor thrombosis associated proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma: Protein disulfide-isomerase A6 and apolipoprotein A-I

Impact of intra-operative cholangiography and parenchymal resection to donor liver function in living donor liver transplantation.

Prognostic factors and role of postoperative radiotherapy in surgically resected thymomas

Oxymatrine induces human pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells apoptosis via regulating expression of Bcl-2 and IAP families, and releasing of cytochrome c.