Killing Cancer with Amazonian Botanicals and Marine Algae
Current Research at the University of British Colombia shows Amazonian Botanicals and Marine Algae kills cancer cells, and slows migration of cancer cells. Furthermore, these compounds are non-toxic to healthy cells.
Dr Ajendra Kumar lead researcher at UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences, Issues this important update:
Exploring the role of herbal medicine in regulation of Breast cancer Growth In-vitro Ujendra Kumar and John Easterling
Breast cancer remains one of the most common causes of death and the leading type of cancer globally in women, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases each year. Breast cancers can be classified based on the expression and activity of growth factor receptors. From the early developmental stage of breast cancer to the stage of the untreatable condition and metastasize, several vital players elicit interconnected roles, including receptor proteins, i.e., estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) that mediate complex downstream signaling pathways involved in aggressive tumour growth. To validate and characterize the role of Herbal medicines on breast cancer cell proliferation, we selected four different breast cancer cell lines, including less invasive MCF-7, medium-high invasive SKBR-3 (HER2-overexpressing), highly invasive MDA-MB-231(triple-negative (ER−/PR−/HER2−), ) and BT-474 triple-positive ER+/PR+/HER2+). These breast cancer cells represent four of the most prominent types of breast cancer we normally diagnosed in women and the leading cause of death worldwide.
Successful breast cancer treatment depends on inhibiting tumour growth, which can be achieved by two different mechanisms: blocking tumour cell proliferation (resulting in blockade of tumour growth) or killing tumour cells (resulting in reduced tumour mass). Tumor growth is multifactorial and depends on certain receptor proteins, inflammation and loss of immunity, cell migration, invasion, angiogenesis, oxidative stress and resulting energy disbalance. These molecular and biological events are difficult to target with a single drug, and we are left with treatment choices of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as synthetic drugs with unexpected side effects and damage to healthy tissue in the tumour vicinity.
Growing evidence supports the beneficial effect of personalised medicine using natural products, including plant extracts the emerged as an effective therapeutic alternative for cancer treatment. The National Cancer Institute and NIH have promoted this concept. Here, with financial support from the ONJ Foundation, we are examining the possible protective and antiproliferative effects of several herbal medicines. We screened nine herbal medicines: Astaxanthin, Bladder Wrack, Camu Camu, Cat’s Claw, Catuaba, Chanca, Graviola, Pau D’arco and Wakame. Using cell proliferation assay, we validated the cytotoxic effect of five herbal medicines i,e., Astaxanthin, Camu Camu, Cat’s Claw, Graviola and Wakame, on cancer cells. These herbs did not display any toxic effect on non-tumor cells. The herbal medicines with efficacy towards cancer cells can be considered as a possible drug of choice to be used in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs with minimum side effects often associated with chemotherapy. Pau d’Arco is the only drug that induced toxic effects on non-tumour cells despite significantly inhibiting tumour cell proliferation.
The induction of apoptosis in tumours in-vitro and in-vivo by any drugs is an indication that the drug might have an ability as a therapeutic alternative in cancer biology. To characterize the herbal preparation that exerts inhibition of tumour cell proliferation and validate their proapoptotic effect, we next determined apoptosis in breast cancer cells following treatment with Astaxanthin, Camu Camu, Cat’s Claw, Graviola and Wakame. Our pilot studies revealed that herbal preparation induced apoptosis in a drug-specific manner. These results merit additional experiments in combination with existing tumour therapy for synergistic interaction and in elucidating the molecular targets. The induction of apoptosis with this natural extract may promote apoptosis in combination with chemotherapy because in lack of apoptosis with chemotherapy is often an indication of treatment failure.
Inhibition of tumour cell proliferation indicates the involvement of multiple targets with these natural compounds with limited or no adverse effects. These results should assist us to understand how breast cancer growth can be regulated. Further studies to evaluate and establish the mechanism of action of these herbal medicines are in progress.