Kim Jungeun, Yoo Jae-Myung, Kim Jin Soo, Kim Sun-Gun, Park Jong Eel, Seok Young Mi, Son Jun-Ho, Kim Hyo Jung
Korean Medicine R&D Team 1, National Institute for Korean Medicine Development, Gyeongsan 38540, Republic of Korea.
Unimed Pharmaceutical Inc., Seoul 05567, Republic of Korea.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Jul 25;2020:2584783. doi: 10.1155/2020/2584783. eCollection 2020.
Mountain ginseng has been used generally as a pharmacopuncture for cancer therapy in clinical practice in Northeast Asia. Nonetheless, there have been few scientific reports for the anticancer action of mountain ginseng. In this study, we investigated whether mountain ginseng extract (MGE) could inhibit the growth of breast cancer in and models. MGE showed stronger cytotoxicity than farm-cultivated ginseng extract (FGE) through promoting ROS generation. Also MGE dose-dependently brought about mitochondrial dysfunction in MCF-7 cells. In addition, MGE induced apoptosis through enhancing the activities of caspase-3/7 by regulation of expression of Bcl-2, Bax, cytochrome c, and cleaved caspase-3 in the MCF-7 cells. Consistent with the results, MGE significantly reduced tumor weights compared with FGE in mice transplanted with MCF-7 cells, and it regulated the expression of apoptosis-related proteins, such as Bcl-2, Bax, cytochrome c, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP, in the tumor tissues. Additionally, MGE included higher total ginsenoside contents than FGE. In conclusion, MGE, which is richer in ginsenosides, exerts a stronger anticancer action than FGE in breast cancer. The anticancer action of MGE may be closely correlated with caspase-mediated apoptosis through upregulating ROS generation. Therefore, these findings may be helpful for a clinical understanding of the anticancer mechanism of MGE for breast cancer patients.
在东北亚的临床实践中，山参通常被用作癌症治疗的药物穴位注射剂。尽管如此，关于山参抗癌作用的科学报道却很少。在本研究中，我们调查了山参提取物（MGE）是否能在体外和体内模型中抑制乳腺癌的生长。MGE通过促进活性氧（ROS）生成，显示出比人工种植人参提取物（FGE）更强的细胞毒性。此外，MGE在MCF-7细胞中剂量依赖性地导致线粒体功能障碍。此外，MGE通过调节MCF-7细胞中Bcl-2、Bax、细胞色素c和裂解的caspase-3的表达，增强caspase-3/7的活性，从而诱导细胞凋亡。与体外实验结果一致，在移植了MCF-7细胞的小鼠中，与FGE相比，MGE显著降低了肿瘤重量，并调节了肿瘤组织中凋亡相关蛋白的表达，如Bcl-2、Bax、细胞色素c、裂解的caspase-3和裂解的聚（ADP-核糖）聚合酶（PARP）。此外，MGE中的总人参皂苷含量高于FGE。总之，人参皂苷含量更高的MGE在乳腺癌中比FGE具有更强的抗癌作用。MGE的抗癌作用可能与通过上调ROS生成介导的caspase依赖性细胞凋亡密切相关。因此，这些发现可能有助于临床了解MGE对乳腺癌患者的抗癌机制。
