School of Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China ; Centre for Quantitative Systems Biology, Department of Physics and Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 25;8(9):e75328. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075328. eCollection 2013.
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-γ, and TNF-α, 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-γ and TNF-α. Our data thus point to AC as potentially a new, alternative immuno-modulating herbal remedy for anticancer treatment.
中草药长期以来一直被用于通过调节人体免疫反应来治疗各种疾病。在这项研究中，我们研究了传统上用于治疗感染和癌症的中国草药犁头尖（Alocasia Cucullata，AC）的免疫调节作用和抗肿瘤活性。我们发现，AC 根的全水提取物可显著抑制小鼠肿瘤模型中的肿瘤生长。AC 治疗组小鼠的中位存活时间为 43 天，比对照组长 16 天。此外，AC 治疗组小鼠中关键抗肿瘤细胞因子（如 IL-2、IFN-γ 和 TNF-α）的诱导水平显著升高，表明 AC 可能通过激活抗肿瘤免疫来发挥抗肿瘤作用。为了进一步确定 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 提取物处理显著诱导 THP-1 分化为巨噬样细胞，分化的 THP-1 表达特定的巨噬细胞表面标记物，如 CD11b 和 CD14，以及产生抗肿瘤细胞因子，如 IFN-γ 和 TNF-α。因此，我们的数据表明，AC 可能是一种新的、替代的免疫调节草药疗法，用于癌症治疗。
