Raad Chris, Raad Abby, Pandey Siyaram
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2024 Jan 25;2024:9458716. doi: 10.1155/2024/9458716. eCollection 2024.
While incredible medical advancements in chemotherapeutics development for cancer treatment have been made, the majority of these are not selective in their mechanism of action, leading to adverse effects. Given the systemic toxicity associated with these therapies, they are not well suited for long-term use. Natural health products, or NHPs, may provide a way to selectively target the oxidative and metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer cells. White tea () and rosemary () are two natural extracts that have been studied extensively for their medicinal properties. However, their anticancer activity and mechanism of action are yet to be fully elucidated. We have examined the extracts' cancer cell-killing ability as well as their interactions with common chemotherapeutics in MDA-MB-231 cells, a triple-negative breast cancer cell line, . Cell death measurement, morphological and biochemical characterization of apoptotic cell death, mechanisms of action (mitochondrial depolarization and oxidative stress), and immunofluorescence assays to estimate the percentage of cancer stem cells (CSCs) were performed following treatment with Synthite tea extract (STE) and rosemary extract (RE), provided by Synthite Industries Limited alone and in combination with cisplatin and paclitaxel. The key findings in this study are that STE and RE alone demonstrated very efficient anticancer activity against TNBC, and more importantly, the administration of the extracts in conjunction with cisplatin and paclitaxel sensitizes cancer cells to achieve enhanced cell death. In addition, CSCs were found to be sensitive to treatment with STE alone and in combination with RE and exhibited greater sensitivity to combination therapies compared to chemotherapeutic alone. The significance of these observations is that STE and RE, well-tolerated NHPs, have the potential to enhance the efficacy of current chemotherapeutics when combined, as well as prevent relapse for TNBC.
虽然在癌症治疗的化疗药物开发方面已经取得了令人难以置信的医学进步,但其中大多数在作用机制上没有选择性,会导致不良反应。鉴于这些疗法存在全身毒性,它们不太适合长期使用。天然健康产品(NHPs)可能提供一种选择性靶向癌细胞氧化和代谢弱点的方法。白茶( )和迷迭香( )是两种因其药用特性而被广泛研究的天然提取物。然而,它们的抗癌活性和作用机制尚未完全阐明。我们研究了这些提取物在三阴性乳腺癌细胞系MDA-MB-231细胞中杀死癌细胞的能力,以及它们与常用化疗药物的相互作用。在用Synthite工业有限公司提供的Synthite茶提取物(STE)和迷迭香叶提取物(RE)单独及与顺铂和紫杉醇联合处理后,进行了细胞死亡测量、凋亡性细胞死亡的形态学和生化特征分析、作用机制(线粒体去极化和氧化应激)以及免疫荧光测定以估计癌症干细胞(CSCs)的百分比。本研究的主要发现是,单独的STE和RE对三阴性乳腺癌显示出非常有效的抗癌活性,更重要的是,将提取物与顺铂和紫杉醇联合使用可使癌细胞敏感,从而实现增强的细胞死亡。此外,发现癌症干细胞对单独使用STE以及与RE联合使用敏感,并且与单独使用化疗药物相比,对联合疗法表现出更高的敏感性。这些观察结果的意义在于,STE和RE这两种耐受性良好的天然健康产品在联合使用时有可能增强当前化疗药物的疗效,并预防三阴性乳腺癌的复发。