Alocasia cucullata Exhibits Strong Antitumor Effect In Vivo by Activating Antitumor Immunity
Alocasia cucullata Exhibits Strong Antitumor Effect In Vivo by Activating Antitumor Immunity
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0075328
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发表时间：
2013-09-25
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Shi, Jue
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Peng, Qiuxian;Cai, Hongbing;Shi, Jue
长期以来，中草药通过调节人体免疫反应来治疗各种疾病。本研究旨在探讨海芋的免疫调节作用和抗肿瘤活性。我们发现AC根的全水提取物可以显著地抑制小鼠肿瘤模型中的肿瘤生长。AC治疗组小鼠的中位生存期为43天，比对照组延长16天。此外，AC处理的小鼠显示出显著更高的关键抗肿瘤细胞因子（如IL-2、IFN-γ和TNF-α）诱导，表明AC可能通过激活抗肿瘤免疫来发挥抗肿瘤作用。为了进一步明确AC的细胞和分子机制，我们研究了人单核细胞系THP-1对AC全水提取物的剂量反应。AC提取物的处理显著诱导THP-1分化成巨噬细胞样细胞，并且分化的THP-1显示出特异性巨噬细胞表面标志物如CD 11b和CD 14的表达，以及抗肿瘤细胞因子如IFN-γ和TNF-α的产生。因此，我们的数据指出，AC作为潜在的一种新的，替代免疫调节草药抗癌治疗。
Chinese herbal medicines have long been used to treat various illnesses by modulating the human immune response. In this study, we investigate the immuno-modulating effect and antitumor activity of Alocasia Cucullata (AC), a Chinese herb traditionally used to treat infection and cancer. We found that the whole water extract of AC roots could significantly attenuate tumor growth in mouse tumor models. The median survival time of the AC-treated mice was 43 days, 16 days longer than that of the control group. Moreover, the AC-treated mice showed substantially higher induction of key antitumor cytokines, such as IL-2, IFN-gamma, and TNF-alpha, indicating that AC may exert antitumor effect by activating antitumor immunity. To further pinpoint the cellular and molecular mechanism of AC, we studied the dose response of a human monocytic cell line, THP-1, to the whole water extract of AC. Treatment of the AC extract significantly induced THP-1 differentiation into macrophage-like cells and the differentiated THP-1 showed expression of specific macrophage surface markers, such as CD11b and CD14, as well as productions of antitumor cytokines, e.g. IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. Our data thus point to AC as potentially a new, alternative immuno-modulating herbal remedy for anticancer treatment.