Antitumor Potential of Antimicrobials: An Anticipated Armour for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma also known as hepatoma is considered as the most common type of primary liver malignancy and is the leading cause of death worldwide. The incidence and mortality is still on the rise despite the drastic progress in early screening tools and new advancements in diagnosis and treatment. For the patients presenting with advanced disease, Sorafenib is the only approved drug, however the treatment outcome of metastatic cancer is still unsatisfactory with median overall survival below 15 months. Over the past few years great progress has been achieved in anticancer therapy, but development of resistance and unavoidable side effects have weakened these attainments. Keeping in view this stern condition, a number of drugs with novel antitumor mechanisms are under investigations including antimicrobials which have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and cytotoxic effects. In this regard, both conventional and novel antimicrobials are being studied to explore their anticancer potential along with underlying mechanisms which may render them as effective anticancer drugs in near future. Moreover, the new approach of drug repurposing is also being encouraged especially in cancers in order to reduce cost and limit adverse effects. The purpose of this review is to provide comprehensive landscape of current information on anti-tumor evidence in support of certain compounds with well-known antimicrobial activities, against HCC based on relevant literature search on different HCC cell lines.

Preparation of hispidulin chitosan microsphere and its antiproliferation effect / 中国中药杂志

Hispidulin(HPDL) chitosan microspheres were prepared in this study to deliver HPDL to the lesion sitevia intravenous injection, and further evaluate their anticancer effects in vitro and the growth inhibition effect on A549 cells spheroids. HPDL chitosan microspheres were prepared by emulsion crosslinking method with chitosan as a drug carrier and the amount of HPDL was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The morphology of microspheres was observed under laser scanning confocal microscope. Additionally, the drug release amount of targeting microspheres was detected by dialysis method. Furthermore, the anti-proliferative effects against A549 lung cancer cells were tested by sulforhodamine B (SRB) method, and the effects of HPDL chitosan micrpsphereson early apoptosis of A549 cellswere determined by flow cytometry. A549 cells tumor spheroids were developed in vitro and then HPDL chitosan microspheres were added. On the 0, 1, 3, 7 d after adding the drugs, the inverted microscope was used to observe the mythologicaland volume changes of A549 cells spheroids. The encapsulation efficiency of HPDL chitosan microspheres was （75.32±0.52）%, and the drug loading amount was （7.76±0.67）%. Meanwhile, the microspheres were round shaped andhad smooth surface. The HPDL chitosan microspheres exhibited stronger inhibitory effects on A549 lung cancer cells. The results of flow cytometry indicated that, the early apoptosis rate of lung cancer A549 cells was （37.0±0.75）% at 24 h cells culture after drug administration. The volume of tumor spheroid was significantly inhibited, which had been shrunk by (50.09±11.06)% after the treatment by drug-loaded microsphere at day 7 as compared with blank group; meanwhile, the cells surface were obviously lysed. The preparation method in this research was simple and practicable, and the microspheres prepared with this method were round and smooth, with high encapsulation efficiency, which can significantly inhibit proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and induce cell apoptosis, and at the same time can cause lysisand death of A549 cell tumor spheroid.

New arbutin derivatives from the leaves of Heliciopsis lobata with cytotoxicity / 中国天然药物

Heliciopsis lobata is a medicinal plant, which is exclusively used to treat tumor in Li folk region. Two new arbutin derivatives, 6'-((E)2-methoxy-5-hydroxycinnamoyl) arbutin (1) and 2'-((E)2, 5-dihydroxycinnamoyl) arbutin (2) along with five known compounds (3-7), were isolated from the leaves of Heliciopsis lobata. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic interpretations. They were evaluated for their potential anticancer activity. Compounds 6 and 7 exhibited cytotoxicity against MGC-803 cells with IC values being 44.1 and 11.3 μg·mL, respectively. Additionally, compounds 1, 2 and 5-7 exhibited a moderate inhibition of MGC-803 cells invasion; compound 2 at 20 μg·mL inhibited the invasion of MGC-803 cells by 43.0%, compared with the controls.

Garlic: Review of literature.

Garlic is one of the components, which have effects on reducing the risk of cancer. Including garlic in the diet helps for the betterment of the health. Medicinal effects of the garlic were known since 5,000 years. Recently, studies were carried out to known its effect on the cancer cell lines. Many studies have shown its effects not only on carcinomas, but also on the cardiovascular system and immune system. Functions of the each component of the garlic were studied to know exactly, which component has got beneficial effect. So this review has been carried out to know about the component, functions of each component, mode of action, and beneficial effects of the garlic.