curcumin and tetrandrine

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. The clinical management of HCC remains a substantial challenge. Although surgical resection of tumor tissues seems promising, a high recurrence and/or metastasis rate accounting for disease-related death has led to an urgent need for improved postsurgical preventive/therapeutic clinical intervention. Developing advanced target-therapy agents such as sorafenib appears to be the only effective clinical intervention for patients with HCC to date, but only limited trials have been conducted in this regard. Because of their enhanced preventive/therapeutic effects, traditional Chinese herbal medicine (CHM)-derived compounds are considered suitable agents for HCC treatment. The CHM-derived compounds also possess multilevel, multitarget, and coordinated intervention effects, making them ideal candidates for inhibition of tumor progression and HCC metastasis. This article reviews the anticancer activity of various CHMs with the hope of providing a better understanding of how to best use CHM for HCC treatment.

Topics: Abietanes; Benzylisoquinolines; Berberine; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Curcumin; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Humans; Liver Neoplasms; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Resveratrol; Scutellaria baicalensis; Stilbenes

(1) Background: Curcumin (CUR) and tetrandrine (TET) are natural compounds with various bioactivities, but have problems with low solubility, stability, and absorption rate, resulting in low bioavailability, and limited applications in food, medicine, and other fields. It is very important to improve the solubility while maintaining the high activity of drugs. Liposomes are micro-vesicles synthesized from cholesterol and lecithin. With high biocompatibility and biodegradability, liposomes can significantly improve drug solubility, efficacy, and bioavailability. (2) Methods: In this work, CUR and TET were encapsulated with nano-liposomes and g DSPE-MPEG 2000 (DP)was added as a stabilizer to achieve better physicochemical properties, biosafety, and anti-tumor effects. (3) Results: The nano-liposome (CT-DP-Lip) showed stable particle size (under 100 nm) under different conditions, high solubility, drug encapsulation efficiency (EE), loading capacity (LC), release rate in vitro, and stability. In addition, in vivo studies demonstrated CT-DP-Lip had no significant toxicity on zebrafish. Tumor cytotoxicity test showed that CT-DP-Lip had a strong inhibitory effect on a variety of cancer cells. (4) Conclusions: This work showed that nano-liposomes can significantly improve the physical and chemical properties of CUR and TET and make them safer and more efficient.

Topics: Animals; Benzylisoquinolines; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury; Curcumin; Drug Carriers; Liposomes; Neoplasms; Particle Size; Zebrafish

To study the anti-tumor effect of tanshinon II A, tetrandrine, honokiol, curcumin, oridonin and paeonol on leukemia cell lines SUP-B15, K562, CEM, HL-60 and NB4.. To study the anti-tumor effect of tanshinone II A, tetrandrine, honokiol, curcumin, The leukemia cell lines were exposed to the six Chinese herbal components for 96 hours. The proliferative inhibitory effects were detected with MTT and described by IC50 value.. Tanshinone II A inhibited the proliferations of SUP-B15, K562, CEM, HL-60 and NB4 cell lines, with HL-60 showing the least impact. Tetrandrine, honokiol, curcumin and oridonin inhibited the proliferations of SUP-B15, K562, CEM, HL-60 and NB4 cell lines and there was no significant difference between the cell lines. Paeonol did not have significant inhibitory effect on leukemia cell lines.. Tetrandrine, honokiol, curcumin and oridonin inhibit the proliferation of five cell lines SUP-B15, K562, CEM, HL-60, NB4, and the effects are similar, which means that their anticancer effects are quite broad. Tanshinone II A has better anti-leukemia effects on SUP-B15, K562, CEM, NB4 than on HL-60. The effect of paeonol against leukemia cell lines is poor.

Topics: Abietanes; Acetophenones; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Benzylisoquinolines; Biphenyl Compounds; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Curcumin; Diterpenes, Kaurane; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; HL-60 Cells; Humans; K562 Cells; Leukemia; Lignans; Plants, Medicinal