Antitumor and immunomodulating effects of polysaccharides isolated from Solanum nigrum Linne

Abstract

We have examined the effects of the crude polysaccharides isolated from Solanum nigrum Linne (SNL-P) in vitro and in vivo against U14 cervical cancer. SNL-P showed no antiproliferative effects in vitro at a dose up to 1 mg/ml. In vivo administration with SNL-P (90, 180, 360 mg/kg b.w., p.o.) decreased the number of ascites tumor cells and prolonged the survival time of U14 cervical-cancer-bearing mice. FACScan flow cytometer analysis showed that most of the ascites tumor cells were arrested in G2/M phase of cell cycle and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ peripheral blood T-lymphocyte subpopulations were restored following treatment of SNL-P. Furthermore, the treatment with SNL-P also caused a significant increment in IFN-gamma (p < 0.01, 90, 180 and 360 mg/kg b.w.) and a remarkable decrease in Il-4 (p < 0.01, 90, 180 mg/kg b.w.; p < 0.05, 360 mg/kg b.w.) by the method of ELISA. These data showed that SNL-P possess potent antitumor activity and SNL-P might exert antitumor activity via activation of different immune responses in the host rather than by directly attacking cancer cells on the U14 cervical cancer bearing mice. Thus, SNL-P could be used as an immunomodulator and an anticancer agent.

Scientific evaluation of medicinal plants used for the treatment of abnormal uterine bleeding by Avicenna

“…Aqueous extract as wells as polysaccharides isolated from S. nigrum exert antitumor activity on cervical cancer bearing mice [93][94][95].…”

Plants from Solanaceae family with possible anxiolytic effect reported on 19th century's Brazilian medical journal

“…Phytochemical: seco-steroids (physalins) (Soares et al, 2006;Abe et al, 2006;Kuo et al, 2006;Magalhães et al, 2006a;Magalhães et al, 2006b;Damu et al, 2007), alkaloids (Edeoga et al, 2005), tannins and flavonoids (Edeoga et al, 2005;Wollenweber et al, 2005), the withanolides withangulatin (Lee et al, 2008) and physagulins . Patents that were reported, both in the European Patent Office and the Brazilian National Institute of industrial Property databases, most of which concern inflammatory, allergic, parasitic, infectious or digestive diseases, including extracts from P. angulata (Balbani et al, 2009 (Zakaria et al, 2006); can cause a central nervous system depression which may be correlated with an increased parasympathetic tone (Perez et al, 1998), antioxidant (Al-Fatimi et al, 2007); antipyretic and anticancer agent (Hsieh et al, 2008;Hsu et al, 2009;Yang et al, 2010;Li et al, 2008;Li et al, 2009), mutagenic activity (Almeida et al, 2010). Phytochemical: glycoalkaloids (El-Ashaal et al, 1999), tropane alkaloids (Oksman-Caldentey, 2007;Grynkiewicz & Gadzikowska, 2008;Nash et al, 1993), nicotine alkaloids (Oksman-Caldentey, 2007;Boswell et al, 1999), flavonoids (Wollenweber et al, 2005;Huang et al, 2010), sterols (Amir & Kumar, 2004), steroidal saponins (Ikeda et al, 2000;Nakamura et al, 2008;Zhou et al, 2006;Ferreira et al, 1996), pregnane saponins (Zhou et al, 2007), volatile oils and anthocyanins …”

Phytochemical and pharmacological notes of plants indicated to treat tumors in Brazil

“…S. americanum-derived polysaccharides have significant inhibitory activity against tumor growth in mice (Li et al, 2009;Li et al, 2007). In addition, the aqueous extract of this plant inhibits the growth of cervical carcinoma cells in mice by inducing cell cycle arrest (G0/G1) and apoptosis .…”