Section of Immunology & Joint Immunology Program, the Second Clinical Medical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, and Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, China.
Section of Immunology & Joint Immunology Program, the Second Clinical Medical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, and Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, China.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2020 Jan;121:109570. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2019.109570. Epub 2019 Nov 9.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been traditionally used to treat patients with cancers in China. It not only alleviates the symptoms of tumor patients and improves their quality of life, but also controls the size of tumors and prolongs the survival of tumor patients. While some herbs of TCM may exert therapeutic effects by directly targeting cancer cells or reducing side effects caused by antitumor drugs, others can control tumor growth and metastasis via enhancing antitumor immunity. In particular, TCM can exert antitumor effects by upregulating immune responses even in immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. For instance, it reduces the number of M2-type macrophages and Treg cells in the tumor tissue. Although extensive reviews on directly killing cancer cells by TCM have been conducted, a review of anticancer activity of TCM solely based on its immunity-enhancing capacity is unusual. This review will summarize research progress of antitumor TCM that regulates the immune system, including both innate immunity, such as macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells and MDSCs, and adaptive immunity, including CD4/CD8 T lymphocytes, regulatory T cells (Tregs) and B cells. As cancer immunotherapy has recently achieved certain success, it is expected that the clinical applications of immunity-enhancing TCM or traditional medicine for treating various cancer patients will be expanded. Further studies on the mechanisms by which TCM regulates immunity will provide new insights into how TCM controls tumor growth and metastasis, and may help improve its therapeutic effects on various cancers in clinic.
中医药在中国传统上用于治疗癌症患者。它不仅缓解了肿瘤患者的症状,提高了他们的生活质量,而且还控制了肿瘤的大小,延长了肿瘤患者的生存期。虽然一些中药可能通过直接靶向癌细胞或减少抗肿瘤药物引起的副作用来发挥治疗作用,但其他中药可以通过增强抗肿瘤免疫来控制肿瘤的生长和转移。特别是,中医药可以通过上调免疫反应来发挥抗肿瘤作用,即使在免疫抑制性肿瘤微环境中也是如此。例如,它可以减少肿瘤组织中 M2 型巨噬细胞和 Treg 细胞的数量。虽然已经对中医药直接杀伤癌细胞的作用进行了广泛的综述,但基于其免疫增强能力对中医药抗癌活性进行综述是不常见的。本文综述了中医药调节免疫系统的抗肿瘤研究进展,包括先天免疫,如巨噬细胞、树突状细胞、自然杀伤细胞和骨髓来源抑制细胞,以及适应性免疫,包括 CD4/CD8 T 淋巴细胞、调节性 T 细胞(Tregs)和 B 细胞。由于癌症免疫疗法最近取得了一定的成功,预计增强免疫的中医药或传统医学在治疗各种癌症患者中的临床应用将会扩大。进一步研究中医药调节免疫的机制将为中医药如何控制肿瘤生长和转移提供新的见解,并可能有助于提高其在临床上治疗各种癌症的疗效。
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