Understanding the Mechanistic Contribution of Herbal Extracts in Compound Kushen Injection With Transcriptome Analysis
Herbal compatibility is the knowledge of which herbs to combine in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulations. The lack of understanding of herbal compatibility is one of the key problems for the application and popularization of TCM in western society. Because of the chemical complexity of her...
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Published in | Frontiers in oncology Vol. 9; p. 632 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
12.07.2019
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Herbal compatibility is the knowledge of which herbs to combine in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulations. The lack of understanding of herbal compatibility is one of the key problems for the application and popularization of TCM in western society. Because of the chemical complexity of herbal medicines, it is simpler to begin to conduct compatibility research based on herbs rather than component plant secondary metabolites. We have used transcriptome analysis to explore the effects and interactions of two plant extracts (Kushen and Baituling) combined in Compound Kushen Injection (CKI). Based on shared chemical compounds and
cytotoxicity comparisons, we found that both the major compounds in CKI, and the cytotoxicity effects of CKI were mainly derived from the extract of Kushen (
). We generated and analyzed transcriptome data from MDA-MB-231 cells treated with single-herb extracts or CKI and results showed that Kushen contributed to the perturbation of the majority of cytotoxicity/cancer related pathways in CKI such as cell cycle and DNA replication. We also found that Baituling (
) could not only enhance the cytotoxic effects of Kushen in CKI, but also activate immune-related pathways. Our analyses predicted that IL-1β gene expression was upregulated by Baituling in CKI and we confirmed that IL-1β protein expression was increased using an ELISA assay. Altogether, these findings help to explain the rationale for combining Kushen and Baituling in CKI, and show that transcriptome analysis using single herb extracts is an effective method for understanding herbal compatibility in TCM. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs, a section of the journal Frontiers in Oncology Reviewed by: Ying Wang, University of Macau, China; Guofeng Meng, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Edited by: Wei-Dong Zhang, Second Military Medical University, China |
ISSN: | 2234-943X 2234-943X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fonc.2019.00632 |