Increased Anticancer Effect and Reduced
Adverse Effect - Dual Functions of an Herbal Formula -
GraceMed-CA
Shalini Tripathi and Jun Shao,
Department of Pharmacy and Administrative Sciences, College of
Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions
Abstract
An herbal formula, GraceMed-CA, has been developed for
cancer treatment consisting of six traditional Chinese medicines:
Ganoderma Japonica, Poria Cocos, Rhizoma Atractylodis
Macrocephalae, Radix Notoginseng, Radix Ginseng and Radix Asparagi.
In vitro antiproliferation studies show that GraceMed-CA at the
concentration of 25 mg of raw material/ml exerted 90-95% growth
inhibition against the human cancer cell lines: A549 (lung),
MDA-MB-231(breast), KB-3-1(skin) and the murine melanoma cell line:
B16-F10, but only 30% against human normal lung cells, WI38. Even
at the lowest concentration used of 1mg/ml (raw material), about
35-45% cell growth inhibition was observed in all the cancer cell
lines tested. In contrast, the positive control, cyclophosphamide
showed similar antiproliferation activities against the cancer cell
lines and the normal cell line. The animal studies show that
GraceMed-CA (oral dose of 3 g of raw material per Kg body weight,
once/day for 17 days) could significantly (p<0.05) inhibit the
B16-F10 melanoma growth in C57BL/6 mice by 55%±13% and slightly
increase the white blood cell counts. When used in combination with
cyclophosphamide (oral dose of 5 mg/Kg, once/day for 17 days),
GraceMed-CA could significantly (p<0.05) increase the anticancer
activity of cyclophosphamide from 77%±5% to 96%±5%, and
significantly (p<0.05) reduce the decrease of white blood cell
count caused by cyclophosphamide from 45%±4% to 13%±6%. In
conclusion, the antiproliferative activity of GraceMed-CA is tumor
selective, and GraceMed-CA shows great potential for cancer
treatment with chemotherapeutic agents to increase the therapeutic
activities and reduce the adverse effects of the latter.