• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2006

This study was undertaken to evaluate safety and antitumor activity of Nexia, a processed extract of Rhus verniciflua STOKES by heating according to Korean patent 0504160 through toxicology, cancer research and clinical application. Nexia did not exhibit any toxicological symptoms through 13 week continuous treatment, dosage accumulation study and anaphylaxis response. The lifespan of four patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia under complete remission were 110, 83, 97, and 86 months after treatment of Nexia, respectively. These data suggest that Nexia, a processed extract by removing allergen from Rhus verniciflua STOKES, may have safety and antitumor activity and also still need continuous study on its mechanism and clinical trial.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2006

Rhus Verniciflua Stokes has been used for long history to treat blood stasis and cancer in Oriental Medicine. But urushiol, a constituent of Rhus Verniciflua Stokes has T-cell mediated allergic reaction, so it has made clinical limitation. Nexia is allergen removed extract of Rhus Verniciflua Stokes and its extraction process as well as quality control is needed to be standardized. The optimized extraction condition is as follow; temperature is $90{\sim}95^{\circ}C$, volume of slovent 10 times, extraction time >6 hours, pressure $, slovnet water or EtOH(60%), yield 8.1${\sim}$9.8(w/w). HPLC pattern and isolation study showed Nexia contain fisetin(>13.0%), fustin(>7.0%) and no urushiol.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.825-829
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• 2006

Rhus verniciflua Stokes has been used for treatment of blood stasis and abdominal mass in Oriental medicine. Rhus verniciflua Stokes has been experimentally reported to exert antioxidant, antiproliferative, antithrombotic and apoptotic activities. In the present study, the antiangiogenic and in vivo antitumor activities of aqueous extract of processed Rhus verniciflua Stokes (Nexia) by heat were examined to elucidate its anticancer mechanism. Nexia showed weak cytotoxiicty against human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and Lewis lung carcinoma cells (LLC) with IC50 of${\sim}200\;{\mu}g/ml\;and\;>200\;{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Nexia significantly inhibited the proliferation and migratory activity in vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) treated HUVEC. Furthermore, Nexia effectively suppressed the tumor volume in A549 nonsmall lung cancer bearing athymic nude mice, CanN. Cg-Foxn 1nu/CrljBgi up to 40.7% as well as tumor weight incised from LLC cells innoculated into the flank of C57BL/6 mice up to -50% compared with untreated control at a dose of 300 mg/kg. Taken together, these results suggest that processed Rhus verniciflua Stokes may inhibit the growth of Lewis lung carcinoma cells partly via inhibition of angiogenesis and can be potently applied to angiogenesis dependent cancers. However, it still needs a further research on molecular mechanism, angiogenesis animal study and clinical trial in future.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2006

Ekongsan (EKS) was expected to have inhibitory effects on angiogenesis, considering the fact that its constituents such as Ginseng Radix, Glycyrrhizae Radix and Citri Pericarpium were reported to inhibit angiogenesis. Moreover, recently several metabolites transformed by the human intestinal microflora were reported to enhance effectiveness compared to their crude drugs. Based on these data, this study was designed to confirm whether the EKS metabolites (EKS-M) can significantly exert the anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic activites. Hence, with EKS and EKS-M, viability assay, proliferation assay, in vitro tube formation assay, gelatin zymogram assay, in vitro invasion assay were carried out. EKS showed less toxicity in ECV304 and HT1080 cells than EKS-M. EKS-M inhibited the proliferation of HT1080 cells by 30% at 200 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$ and 42% at 400 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$ respectively. Also, EKS-M degraded the tube network at 200 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$. EKS and EKS-M inhibited the expression of MMP-9 at 200 and 400 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$in HT1080 cells. EKS reduced the invasive activity of HT1080 cells through matrigel coated transfilter at the concentration of 200 ${\mu}g/m{\ell}$ more effectively than EKS-M. These data suggest that EKS and EKS-M has anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic activities.