Integrative Management of Chemotherapy-Related Fatigue in Lung Cancer Patients with the Traditional Chinese Medicine Guiqi Erxian.

Objective: To observe the efficacy of Guiqi Erxian granule on chemotherapy-related fatigue in patients with lung cancer treated with chemotherapy. Methods: A total of 76 lung cancer patients with chemotherapy-related fatigue as the main symptom from January 2017 to May 2018 were enrolled and randomly divided into a control group and a treatment group, n = 38/group. The patients in the control group received chemotherapy and basic treatment. The patients in the treatment group received oral Guiqi Erxian granule 20 g each time, three times daily, in addition to the chemotherapy and basic treatment. The brief fatigue inventory (BFI) scale, Cancer Fatigue Scale (CFS), chronic illness therapy fatigue scale, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) symptom scale were evaluated on 1 day before treatment, and on day 7 and day 14 of treatment. Adverse reactions were observed and recorded. Results: Compared to the control group, the total score and scores of each dimension of the BFI and CFS decreased in the treatment group; the effect on fatigue severity and fatigue impact scores in the BFI scale, and the emotional and physical dimension scores in the CFS were improved significantly (P < .05). Compared to the control group, except for the social/family well-being, the scores in the other dimensions of the chronic illness therapy-fatigue scale improved significantly (P < .05). Compared to the control group, the TCM syndrome score in the treatment group decreased significantly (P < .05). Conclusion: Guiqi Erxian granules can improve chemotherapy-related fatigue and quality of life in lung cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, with no obvious side effects, and can be explored as a potential treatment.

Daucosterol linolenate from Sweet Potato Suppresses MCF7-Xenograft-Tumor Growth through Regulating PI3K/AKT Pathway.

Sweet potato is a functional food with potential antitumor properties, but the bioactive constituents and biological mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the antitumor effect of daucosterol linolenate extracted from sweet potato and its potential mechanism. An MTT assay indicated that DLA inhibited the proliferation of breast cancer MCF-7 cells but had only weak effects on the proliferation of MDA-MB-231, 4T1, and MCF-10A cells. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that daucosterol linolenate induced apoptosis of MCF-7 cells. Experiments with MCF-7 xenograft in nude mice further confirmed that DLA inhibited tumor growth dose-dependently. After DLA treatment, the expressions of B-cell lymphoma 2 and vascular endothelial growth factor were decreased and that of cleaved caspase 3 was increased as compared to the TC group. DLA also down-regulated the expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B and repressed insulin-induced phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B activation. Our findings suggest that DLA suppresses breast tumor growth through inactivating the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B pathway.

Simultaneous separation and quantitation of three phytosterols from the sweet potato, and determination of their anti-breast cancer activity.

The present study provides the method for simultaneous separation and determination of concentration and evaluates anti-breast cancer activity of three phytosterols from the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.): daucosterol linolenate (DLA), daucosterol linoleate (DL), and daucosterol palmitate (DP). A cell viability assay revealed that the three phytosterols had a stronger inhibitory effect on MCF-7 than MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line, and had no effects on non-tumorigenic MCF-10A cells. In vivo experiments demonstrated that DLA, DL, and DP suppressed tumor growth in MCF-7 xenograft breast cancer model in nude mice. Given the anti-breast cancer activity of DLA, DL, and DP, an HPLC method for the determination of their content in the sweet potato was developed. The method had satisfactory linearity (R2 = 0.9992-0.9999). The limits of detection (LOD) were in the range of 2.5-10 µg/mL, the limits of quantification (LOQ) were 5-25 µg/mL, and the recovery rates were 97.64-103.02%. Additionally, the HPLC method was successfully validated in eight sweet potato cultivars. This novel technique can be applied for the determination of DLA, DL, and DP in the sweet potato.