Gao Hua, Lamusta Julie, Zhang Wei-Fang, Salmonsen Rebecca, Liu Yingwang, O'Connell Edward, Evans James E, Burstein Sumner, Chen Jason J
Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605-2324, USA.
N Am J Med Sci (Boston). 2011 Apr 25;4(2):62-66. doi: 10.7156/v4i2p062.
The plant Brucea javanica has shown impressive efficacy for treating various diseases including cancer. However, the mechanism by which B. javanica acts is poorly understood. We have established tissue culture assays to study the effects of B. javanica on cervical and several other cancer cells. Our results demonstrated that the aqueous extract from B. javanica is selectively toxic to cancer cells. Induction of apoptosis by B. javanica appears to be a possible mechanism by which it kills cancer cells. Interestingly, a significant increase of p53 protein level was observed in these apoptotic cells. Our studies indicated that both p53-dependent and p53-independent activities contributed to herb-induced cell death. These results imply that further studies with B. javanica may lead to the development of novel anti-cancer drugs.
鸦胆子植物已显示出在治疗包括癌症在内的各种疾病方面令人瞩目的疗效。然而，鸦胆子发挥作用的机制尚不清楚。我们建立了组织培养试验来研究鸦胆子对宫颈癌细胞和其他几种癌细胞的影响。我们的结果表明，鸦胆子的水提取物对癌细胞具有选择性毒性。鸦胆子诱导细胞凋亡似乎是其杀死癌细胞的一种可能机制。有趣的是，在这些凋亡细胞中观察到p53蛋白水平显著升高。我们的研究表明，p53依赖性和p53非依赖性活性均导致了草药诱导的细胞死亡。这些结果意味着对鸦胆子的进一步研究可能会促成新型抗癌药物的开发。
