亚洲传统医药

Abstract: Two of the Thai herbal remedies as traditional medicine in Thailand for cancer therapy were tested against several human cancer cell lines to evaluate the growth inhibitory effect. Four human breast cancer cell lines: MDA-MB435, SKBR3, MCF-7, and T47D, two human lung cancer cell lines: A549, and SK-LU1 and one human colon cancer cell line, Caco-2 were used to investigate the growth inhibitory effects of two Thai herbal remedies. Combination of chemotherapeutic agents and herbs was evaluated by MTT assay. This study demonstrated that the two Thai herbal remedies on their own had no effect on the growth of cancer cells, but, interestingly, in the case of A549 cancer cells treated with the two Thai herbal remedies plus doxorubicin, the IC₅₀ values were 1.020±0.091 and 1.438±0.381 µg/ml, respectively, when compared with doxorubicin alone measured by MTT assay. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the cell cycle progression of A549 cancer cells, and it was found that, in A549 cancer cells, G2/M was significantly arrested by Thai herbal remedy number 1 from (34.34 ± 4.364) % to (38.15 ± 3.288) % and by Thai herbal remedy number 2 from (34.34 ± 4.364) % to (45.23 ± 2.991) % when compared with doxorubicin alone at 48 hours. This study demonstrated the advantage of the dual use of Thai herbal remedies plus chemotherapeutic agents in reducing the doses of the chemotherapeutic agents in vitro.

Key words: human cancer cells, Thai herbal remedy, chemotherapeutic agents, G2/M arrest