AimThe effectiveness of Japanese traditional (Kampo) medicine is gradually attracting attention worldwide. It is typically known to be effective against cancer as a supportive therapy, but the antitumor effect of Kampo formulas is not fully established. We therefore evaluated the antitumor effect of eppikajutsuto.MethodsWe evaluated the antitumor effect of eppikajutsuto by cell viability assay, western blotting, and apoptotic cell assay using an oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line OSC‐19.ResultsWe found that the administration of eppikajutsuto to OSC‐19 in vitro inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and suppressed mTOR activation.ConclusionsThe results suggested that eppikajutsuto might exhibit antitumor effect against OSC‐19 in vitro by suppressing mTOR activation. However, additional studies in vitro and in vivo are required to confirm the antitumor effect of eppikajutsuto.
Neuroinflammation is crucial for chronic stress-induced emotional disturbances. Stress-induced microglial activation occurs in selective brain regions (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)), but not in the others (e.g., nucleus accumbens (NAc)) and is sensitized with repetition of the stress. However, the mechanism remains unknown. Here we analyzed genome-wide patterns of social defeat stress-induced epigenetic and transcriptional changes in mPFC and NAc microglia. Before the stress, microglia in the two brain regions showed similar patterns of H3K27 acetylation in super-enhancers. The patterns diverged after the single stress and even more after the repeated stress. Some superenhancers immediately responded to the stress specifically in the mPFC, whereas other super-enhancers gradually responded with repetition of the stress in both the two brain regions. These respective types of super-enhancers enriched different transcription factor binding motifs in their nucleosome-free regions. Furthermore, these epigenetic responses were concordant with the expression of adjacent genes associated with different biological functions. These findings show that stress induces multiple epigenetic regulations in microglia, which may contribute to the spatiotemporal patterns of neuroinflammation for emotional disturbances.
Patients with the best supportive care often get worse and worse, and it is very difficult to improve their symptoms. As cancer is currently a leading cause of death in Japan, and adequate control of the cancer-associated pain is important to improve the quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients. Pain caused by bone metastasis is particularly difficult to control, and the strong analgesic medication which it requires is generally difficult to control. Such metastases result in reduced mobility and markedly reduced activities of daily living (ADL) and the QOL of patients. Our patient was a 67-year-old man who had been treated for metastasis from the left kidney to cancer of the right pelvic bone ; palliative chemotherapy and mild treatment were provided for his sharp pain, but control of his sharp pain was insufficient. Here we expand on our experience in a patient with bone metastasis caused by renal cell carcinoma successfully treated with Kampo medicine, using acupuncture and decoction extract.acupuncture, decoction extract, bone metastasis, cancer
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