Anti-tumor mechanism of a dietary and herbal mixture

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Recently a "Selected Vegetable and Herbal Mix (SV)" was shown to prolong the median survival time (MST) of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients 3-fold compared to controls in two small scale phase 1/11clinical trials. Initial laboratory animal study using the L1 lung adenocarcinoma model in BALB/c mice showed that combination of two of the active ingredients of SV was able to inhibit up to 80% of the tumor growth. The SV consists of a mixture of whole plants extracts solely from natural, commonly available vegetables and plants that have long been used in herbal medicine. The ingredients of SV were selected for their known anti-viral, anti-tumor and immune enhancing activities. The hypothesis is that the combined biochemical and biological effects of those active molecules are able to endow one with enhanced immune and tumor suppressive activities. The objectives of this proposal are to compare the anti-tumor efficacy of SV and its water or methanol extracts (SVE) and to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanism for their anti-tumor effect. The specific aims are: 1) to examine the anti-tumor efficacy of SV and its extracts; 2) to investigate the effect of SV and its extracts on tumor development at cellular level and in various histopathological properties and 3) to examine the effect of SV and its extracts on molecular signaling pathways regulating growth and apoptosis of normal and tumor cells. The L1-BALB/c model will be used to explore the effect of SV and its extracts on tumor cell growth, apoptosis, metastasis and angiogenesis, as well as to identify molecular basis for the anti-tumor effect of SV. Various signaling pathways and molecules regulating the growth and apoptosis of normal and tumor cells will be examined in control and SV treated mice. SV is a safe, non-toxic dietary mixture that can be taken concurrently with other cancer therapeutic regimens. This study shall provide information for optimizing the preparation and formulation of SV and to identify its most significant anti-tumor activities that could reveal potential targets for further development or improvement of anti-tumor agents. The results could also lead to the development of in vitro assays for quality control of the SV preparation. As an anti-cancer food supplement, although the efficacy of SV has so far been shown mainly in the NSCLC patients, based upon its designed anti-tumor and immune enhancing activities, it is anticipated that SV should have a wide spectrum of anti-tumor efficacy