Research Shows How Traditional Chinese Medicine Destroys Cancer Cells
A study recently published in the journal Oncotarget has shown how a complex mix of plant compounds derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine works to destroy cancer cells. It is the first to characterise the molecular action of a Traditional Chinese Medicine rather than breaking it down to its constituent parts.
Most traditional Chinese medicines have long been used in China for decades. "There is often plenty of evidence that these medicines have a therapeutic benefit, but there isn’t the understanding of how or why.” said David Adelson, Director of the Zhendong Australia – China Centre for the Molecular Basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
"If we broke down and tested the components of many traditional Chinese medicines, we would find that individual compounds don’t have much activity on their own. It’s the combination of compounds which can be effective, and potentially means few side-effects as well.”
Their research is the first to show the molecular mode of action of a complex mixture of plant-based compounds by applying what’s known as a systems biology approach.
For the study, scientists from the University of Adelaide used high-throughput next generation sequencing technologies to identify genes and biological pathways targeted by CKI when applied to breast cancer cells grown in the laboratory.
"We showed that the patterns of gene expression triggered by CKI affect the same pathways as western chemotherapy but by acting on different genes in the same pathways," Prof Adelson explained. "These genes regulate the cell cycle of division and death, and it seems that CKI alters the way the cell cycle is regulated to push cancer cells down the cell death pathway, therefore killing the cells."
He explained that the same method can be used to analyse the molecular mechanisms of other traditional Chinese medicines, potentially opening their way for use in western medicine.
Source of this article:
Identification of candidate anti-cancer molecular mechanisms of compound kushen injection using functional genomics
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