• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.266-275
• /
• 2024

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a rare subpopulation of cancer cells that exhibit stem cell-like characteristics, including self-renewal and differentiation in a multi-stage lineage state via symmetric or asymmetric division, causing tumor initiation, heterogeneity, progression, and recurrence and posing a major challenge to current anticancer therapy. Despite the importance of CSCs in carcinogenesis and cancer progression, currently available anticancer therapeutics have limitations for eradicating CSCs. Moreover, the efficacy and therapeutic windows of currently available anti-CSC agents are limited, suggesting the necessity to optimize and develop a novel anticancer agent targeting CSCs. Ginseng has been traditionally used for enhancing immunity and relieving fatigue. As ginseng's long history of use has demonstrated its safety, it has gained attention for its potential pharmacological properties, including anticancer effects. Several studies have identified the bioactive principles of ginseng, such as ginseng saponin (ginsenosides) and non-saponin compounds (e.g., polysaccharides, polyacetylenes, and phenolic compounds), and their pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic, antifatigue, and neuroprotective effects. Notably, recent reports have shown the potential of ginseng-derived compounds as anti-CSC agents. This review investigates the biology of CSCs and efforts to utilize ginseng-derived components for cancer treatment targeting CSCs, highlighting their role in overcoming current therapeutic limitations.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.52-60
• /
• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Cancer is closely related to diet. One of the most reliable reports of the subject is the expert report from the World Cancer Research Fund & American Institute of Cancer Research (WCRF&AICR). However, majority of the studies including above were written with academic terms and in English. The aim of this study is to create a model, named Anti-Cancer Food Scoring System (ACFS), to provide a simple index of the anticancer potential of food. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We created ACFS codes of various food groups. The evidence of the ACFS codes was provided by the literature at a level comparable to that suggested in the WCRF&AICR report or from the WCRF&AICR report. The ACFS grade was calculated considering food group, cooking, and normalization. Application was performed for Koreans' 20 common meals, which encompass multinational recipes. RESULT: We calculated the ACFS grades of Koreans' 20 common meals. The results were not significantly different from the WCRF&AICR guidelines or information from the National Cancer Information Center of Korea. The grades were briefly interpreted as follows: grade S. ideal for cancer prevention; grade A. good for cancer prevention; grade B, might have anticancer potential; grade C, difficult to be regarded as preventive or carcinogenic; grade D, might against cancer prevention; grade E, probably against cancer prevention. CONCLUSIONS: The ACFS provides a simple index of anticancer potential of diets. This indicator can be useful for the people without expertise, and is effective in evaluating the diets including Asian foods. The ACFS can help design of future clinical or nutritional studies of cancer prevention.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.329-334
• /
• 2007

The potential antioxidant and anticancer activities of Hexane, EtOAc (Ethyl acetate), BuOH (n-Buthanol) and water fractions from methanolic (MeOH) extract of Picrasma quassioides (D. Don) Benn. were evaluated in vitro. Tested fractions showed strong antioxidant activity, especially EtOAc fraction had the highest activity ($IC_{50}\;=\;114.01\;{\mu}g/mL$), containing high total phenolics and total flavonoids contents, showed $67.59\;Tan\;{\mu}g/mg$ and $64.95\;Que\;{\mu}g/mg$ respectively. Anticancer activity of these fractions was tested by MTT assay on HT-29 (the human colon carcinoma cells) cell line. BuOH fraction not only showed very high anticancer activity, but also had no cytotoxic effect on 293 (the human normal kidney cells) cell line. Considering these results, we used BuOH fraction of MeOH crude extract from P. quassioides (D.Don) Benn. to do assessment of apoptosis by flow cytometry and the mRNA expression levels of widely established apoptotic-related genes on HT-29 cell line. All the experiments showed that BuOH fraction can induce apoptosis on HT-29 cell line strongly. Taken together, methanolic extract of P. quassioides has potential for antioxidant and anticancer activities products.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.19
• /
• pp.8007-8018
• /
• 2014

Cervical cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy worldwide and development of new therapeutic strategies and anticancer agents is an urgent priority. Plants have remained an important source in the search for novel cytotoxic compounds and several polyphenolic flavonoids possess antitumor properties. In this review article, data about potential anticarcinogenic activity of common natural flavonoids on various human cervical cancer cell lines are compiled and analyzed showing perspectives for the use of these secondary metabolites in the treatment of cervical carcinoma as well as in the development of novel chemotherapeutic drugs. Such anticancer effects of flavonoids seem to differentially depend on the cellular type and origin of cervical carcinoma creating possibilities for specific targeting in the future. Besides the cytotoxic activity per se, several flavonoids can also contribute to the increase in efficacy of conventional therapies rendering tumor cells more sensitive to standard chemotherapeutics and irradiation. Although the current knowledge is still rather scarce and further studies are certainly needed, it is clear that natural flavonoids may have a great potential to benefit cervical cancer patients.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.879-890
• /
• 2007

The identification of tumor antigens is essential for the development of anticancer therapeutic vaccines and clinical diagnosis of cancer. SEREX (serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries) has been used to identify such tumor antigens by screening sera of patients with cDNA expression libraries. SEREX-defined antigens provide markers for the diagnosis of cancers. Potential diagnostic values of these SEREX-defined antigens have been evaluated. SEREX is also a powerful method for the development of anticancer therapeutics. The development of anticancer vaccines requires that tumor antigens can elicit antigen-specific antibodies or T lymphocytes. More than 2,000 antigens have been discovered by SEFEX. Peptides derived from some of these antigens have been evaluated in clinical trials. This review provides information on the application of SEREX for identification of tumor-associated antigens (TAA) for the development of cancer diagnostics and anticancer therapeutics.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.194-198
• /
• 2008

Artemisia capillaries is a major important food and medicinal resource in Korea. In order to confirm the biological activities of Artemisia capillaries, we investigated antioxidant and anticancer activities from in vitro assays. The Artemisia capillaries methanol (MeOH) extracts was used for the evaluation of DPPH scavenging, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, hydroxyl radical (${\bullet}OH$) scavenging, reducing power assay as antioxidant activity, as well as anticancer activities as MTT assay. As a result, the Artemisia capillaries MeOH extracts showed potent antioxidative activity and anticancer activity in vitro. These results suggest that the Artemisia capillaries MeOH extracts have a potential alleviated oxidation process, cell motility activity, and tumorigenesis.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.63 no.1
• /
• pp.2.1-2.7
• /
• 2023

Fenbendazole (FBZ) is a benzimidazole anthelmintic widely used to treat parasitic infections. The anticancer effect of FBZ has been recently highlighted leading to its consideration as a potential anticancer agent. Although previous studies have demonstrated the effect of FBZ on cancer cells, there is a paucity of studies on the effect of FBZ on lymphoma cells and normal immune cells. Herein, we investigated the effects of FBZ on a mouse lymphoma cell line, EL-4 cells, and spleen cells, using vincristine as a positive control. The cellular metabolic activity of EL-4 cells was decreased by FBZ, but that of the spleen cells was not decreased. Moreover, FBZ reduced the mitochondrial membrane potential and induced reactive oxygen species production in EL-4 cells, but not in spleen cells. FBZ induced G2/M phase arrest and increased the sub G0/G1 phase ratio, indicating apoptosis. Furthermore, compared to the control cells, the reactivity of spleen cells pretreated with FBZ to lipopolysaccharide was maintained. In summary, FBZ is cytotoxic to EL-4 cells, but not to spleen cells. This study provides experimental evidence that FBZ exerts an anticancer effect, and less cytotoxic effects and functional damage to normal spleen cells.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.52 no.5
• /
• pp.342-347
• /
• 2019

Methylation is a primary epigenetic mechanism regulating gene expression. 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine is an FDA-approved drug prescribed for treatment of cancer by inhibiting DNA-Methyl-Transferase 1 (DNMT1). Results of this study suggest that prolonged treatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine could induce centrosome abnormalities in cancer cells and that CEP131, a centrosome protein, is regulated by DNMT1. Interestingly, cancer cell growth was attenuated in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting the expression of Cep131. Finally, Cep131-deficient cells were more sensitive to treatment with DNMT1 inhibitors. These findings suggest that Cep131 is a potential novel anti-cancer target. Agents that can inhibit this protein may be useful alone or in combination with DNMT1 inhibitors to treat cancer.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.336-343
• /
• 2020

The present study was carried out to investigate the possibility that bispidinone derivative makes anticancer drug availability to human cervical carcinoma cell. The B8 has the lowest IC50 value among B8, B9 and B10 which are bispidinone analogue with bromide. According to cytotoxic test through WST-8 assay, B8 shows the most magnificent cytotoxicity effectiveness with 76 μM of IC50 value. In human cervical carcinoma cell treated with B8, it noticeably controlled cellular multiplication by increase of concentration and time. Furthermore, morphological changes like cellular shrink, disruption and nuclear condensation, feature of apoptosis, are observed. Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining assay test proved that B8 can cause apoptosis. Moreover, after treatment with 76 μM of B8, flow cytometry analysis shows that increase of active oxygen species are induced and membrane potential in mitochondria is decreased. Manifestation of Bcl-2 family and caspase cascades protein provides evidence that B8 induces apoptosis through mitochondria and caspase-related pathway. Taken together, we suggested that B8 reduced membrane potential in mitochondria and induce apoptosis through the pathway depended on mitochondria and caspase.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2024

Objectives : This study aimed to predict the effectiveness and potential of Schizonepeta tenuifolia as an anticancer treatment for non-small cell lung cancer through network-based pharmacology and cellular experiment. Methods : To identify the major bioactive compounds in Schizonepeta tenuifolia, we used the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems. The target genes for the cancer treatment were selected using the UniProt database and the networked using Cytoscape. We performed functional enrichment analysis based on the Gene Ontology Biological Process and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathways to predict the mechanisms. To investigate the effect of Schizonepeta tenuifolia on lung cancer cell growth, we treated A549 cells, a lung cancer cell line, with different concentrations of the drug and used the MTT assay for cell viability. Results : Research has shown that the most effective mechanism of active compounds from Schizonepeta tenuifolia is through the pathway of cancer. The results of the network pharmacology analysis indicate that Schizonepeta tenuifolia has potential medicinal value as an adjuvant in anticancer treatment. The concentration-dependent inhibition of cell viability was observed on A549 cells. Furthermore, synergistic anticancer activity with Doxorubicin was also observed. Conclusions : Through a network pharmacological approach, Schizonepeta tenuifolia was predicted to have potential as an anticancer agent, and its efficacy was experimentally demonstrated using A549 cells. These findings suggest that Schizonepeta tenuifolia is a promising candidate for future research.