德国癌症研究中心证实18种中药成份有抗癌作用

        德国癌症研究中心（DKFZ）对中药的76种植物进行研究，至今共发现18种成份对癌细胞的生长有抑制作用，这18种成份目前尚处于实验室研究阶段。研究中心以生物学家Thomas Efferth为首的研究小组的第一批研究结果已在癌症研究权威杂志《分子癌症研究》（Molecular Cancer Therapy,7/1，2008）上发表。此外，Efferth与Erlangen大学的研究人员一起对青蒿素的衍生物--青蒿琥酯进行研究，并将一年生的青蒿应用于两名患眼内血管膜瘤的患者身上。一般得这种病的患者只能存活3至5个月，而服用含青蒿琥酯的试验药品后，其中一人治疗后活了两年，另一名患者至今已活了4年，并且已痊愈。虽然这一结果不排除偶然可能，但它的成功极大鼓舞了对青蒿素的深入研究。此外，美国加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校还对姜黄属植物进行研究，证明姜黄属药品能提高肠癌和肺癌病人化疗的效果。美国食品药物管理局也批准了一项针对薏苡属药品治疗肺癌作用的研究。

原始出处：

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 7, 152-161, January 1, 2008. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-07-0073

Phytochemistry and pharmacogenomics of natural products derived from traditional chinese medicine and chinese materia medica with activity against tumor cells

Thomas Efferth1, Stefan Kahl2,3,6, Kerstin Paulus4, Michael Adams2, Rolf Rauh5, Herbert Boechzelt3, Xiaojiang Hao6, Bernd Kaina5 and Rudolf Bauer2

1 German Cancer Research Centre, Pharmaceutical Biology, Heidelberg, Germany; 2 Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Graz; 3 Joanneum Research, Graz, Austria; 4 Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; 5 Institute of Toxicology, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany; and 6 State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China

Requests for reprints: Thomas Efferth, German Cancer Research Centre, Pharmaceutical Biology (C015), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Phone: 49-6221-423426; Fax: 49-6221-423433.

 

Abstract

The cure from cancer is still not a reality for all patients, which is mainly due to the limitations of chemotherapy (e.g., drug resistance and toxicity). Apart from the high-throughput screening of synthetic chemical libraries, natural products represent attractive alternatives for drug development. We have done a systematic bioactivity-based screening of natural products derived from medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine. Plant extracts with growth-inhibitory activity against tumor cells have been fractionated by chromatographic techniques. We have isolated the bioactive compounds and elucidated the chemical structures by nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. By this strategy, we identified 25-O-acetyl-23,24-dihydro-cucurbitacin F as a cytotoxic constituent of Quisqualis indica. Another promising compound identified by this approach was miltirone from Salvia miltiorrhiza. The IC50 values for miltirone of 60 National Cancer Institute cell lines were associated with the microarray-based expression of 9,706 genes. By COMPARE and hierarchical cluster analyses, candidate genes were identified, which significantly predicted sensitivity or resistance of cell lines to miltirone.