A traditional Chinese medicine formulation consisting of Rhizoma Corydalis and Rhizoma Curcumae exerts synergistic anti-tumor activity

Abstract

Abstract. Synergy analysis of anticancer agents is an important approach to determining the ratio and/or dose of drugs for clinical combination therapy. However, this method is rarely used to evaluate the composition of traditional Chinese medicine formulation. 'Yanhusuo San' (YHSS), which consists of yanhusuo (Rhizoma Corydalis) and Ezhu (Rhizoma Curcumae), has been an archaic Chinese medicine prescription since the Song dynasty (960-1279 AD). We previously demonstrated that either yanhusuo or ezhu has strong anticancer effect. Herein, we sought to determine the possible synergic effect between these two Chinese herbs. We measured the IC 50 of each herb extract and both extracts at different ratios of doses by MTT assay. Isobologram and combination index (CI) analyses were used to evaluate the synergistic effect of yanhusuo and ezhu in different fixed ratios. Our results indicated that a combination of two herbal extracts exhibits the strongest anticancer cell proliferation effect at the ratio of 3:2 (ezhu to yanhusuo; referred to as E3Y2). Using Boyden Chamber assay, flow cytometry, and fluorescence microscopy analysis, we found that E3Y2 could markedly reduce the cell invasion ability and induce cytochrome c release rather than single use, but E3Y2 could not influence the cell cycle distribution. When the levels of ERK1/2, p-ERK1/2 and p-Rb were determined by Western blot analysis, we found that the E3Y2 significantly suppresses the level of p-ERK. Thus, our studies provide a plausible molecular basis of the synergistic anti-tumor effect of ezhu and yanhusuo.

Ferulic acid prevents liver injury and increases the anti-tumor effect of diosbulbin B in vivo

“…In addition to western therapies for cancer prevention, there are also studies on anti-tumor effects of herbal medicines such as D. bulbifera, Tripterygium wilfordii, and Andrographis paniculata (Shamon et al, 1997;Gao et al, 2002;Kumar et al, 2004). Compatibility is a main principle of Chinese medicinal herbs, and some reports have demonstrated that compatibility may lead to eliminating toxicity or reinforcing bioactivities (Kim et al, 2007;Gao et al, 2009). Ferulic acid is the main bioactive component of A. sinensis root, and our results from ALT/AST assays and histological observations are the first to demonstrate that ferulic acid prevents diosbulbin B-induced liver injury.…”

Germacrone exerts anti-cancer effects on gastric cancer through induction of cell cycle arrest and promotion of apoptosis

“…Viability assays revealed that germacrone could inhibit cell proliferation in the dose-and treatment time-dependent manner in BGC823 cells. As the anti-tumor capabilities of Rhizoma curcuma have been identified clinically in China [30], findings in the present study are inspiring for future studies on investigating the bioactivities of other volatile oil components isolated from Rhizoma curcuma, such as β-elemene, curcumol, curdione, neocurdione, etc.…”

Exploring the Effect of Corydalis Yanhusuo on Hepatoc ellular Carcinoma Mechanism through Network Pharma cology,Molecular docking and In Vitro Experiments

“…Corydalis yanhusuo (YHS) is a common TCM drug pair that can be used to treat tumors 4 . According to previous research, the active ingredient in YHS is Dehydrocorydaline, which can suppress cell growth, invasion, and migration by inhibiting the MEK1/2-ERK1/2 cascade within melanoma 5 .…”