Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 97105-900 Santa Maria, RS, Brazil.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2011 Sep 1;137(1):856-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2011.07.011. Epub 2011 Jul 8.
The Asháninkas, indigenous people of Peru, use cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa) to restore health. Uncaria tomentosa has antioxidant activity and works as an agent to repair DNA damage. It causes different effects on cell proliferation depending on the cell type involved; specifically, it can stimulate the proliferation of myeloid progenitors and cause apoptosis of neoplastic cells. Neutropenia is the most common collateral effect of chemotherapy. For patients undergoing cancer treatment, the administration of a drug that stimulates the proliferation of healthy hematopoietic tissue cells is very desirable. It is important to assess the acute effects of Uncaria tomentosa on granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells (CFU-GM) and in the recovery of neutrophils after chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, by establishing the correlation with filgrastim (rhG-CSF) treatment to evaluate its possible use in clinical oncology.
The in vivo assay was performed in ifosfamide-treated mice receiving oral doses of 5 and 15 mg of Uncaria tomentosa and intraperitoneal doses of 3 and 9 μg of filgrastim, respectively, for four days. Colony-forming cell (CFC) assays were performed with human hematopoietic stem/precursor cells (hHSPCs) obtained from umbilical cord blood (UCB).
Bioassays showed that treatment with Uncaria tomentosa significantly increased the neutrophil count, and a potency of 85.2% was calculated in relation to filgrastim at the corresponding doses tested. An in vitro CFC assay showed an increase in CFU-GM size and mixed colonies (CFU-GEMM) size at the final concentrations of 100 and 200 μg extract/mL.
At the tested doses, Uncaria tomentosa had a positive effect on myeloid progenitor number and is promising for use with chemotherapy to minimize the adverse effects of this treatment. These results support the belief of the Asháninkas, who have classified Uncaria tomentosa as a 'powerful plant'.
秘鲁的原住民 Asháninkas 人使用猫爪（Uncaria tomentosa）来恢复健康。Uncaria tomentosa 具有抗氧化活性，可作为修复 DNA 损伤的药物。它对细胞增殖的影响因涉及的细胞类型而异；具体而言，它可以刺激髓样祖细胞的增殖并导致肿瘤细胞凋亡。中性粒细胞减少症是化疗最常见的副作用。对于接受癌症治疗的患者，非常需要使用一种能刺激健康造血组织细胞增殖的药物。评估猫爪对粒细胞-巨噬细胞集落形成细胞（CFU-GM）的急性作用以及在化疗引起的中性粒细胞减少症后恢复中性粒细胞的作用非常重要，方法是建立与非格司亭（rhG-CSF）治疗的相关性，以评估其在临床肿瘤学中的可能用途。
在接受异环磷酰胺治疗的小鼠中进行体内试验，这些小鼠分别接受 5 和 15mg 猫爪的口服剂量和 3 和 9μg 非格司亭的腹腔内剂量，持续四天。使用来自脐血（UCB）的人造血干细胞/前体细胞（hHSPCs）进行集落形成细胞（CFC）测定。
生物测定表明，猫爪处理显著增加了中性粒细胞计数，并计算出与相应剂量的非格司亭相比，其效力为 85.2%。体外 CFC 测定显示，在最终浓度为 100 和 200μg 提取物/mL 时，CFU-GM 和混合集落（CFU-GEMM）的大小增加。
在测试剂量下，猫爪对髓样祖细胞数量有积极影响，并且有望与化疗联合使用，以最大程度地减少这种治疗的不良反应。这些结果支持了 Asháninkas 人的观点，他们将猫爪归类为“强力植物”。
