Effect of combined treatment with cyclophosphamidum and allicin on neuroblastoma-bearing mice

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of allicin combined with cyclophosphamide on neuroblastoma (NB)-bearing mice and explore the immunological mechanism in it.Methods:A total of30 NB-bearing mice were equally randomized into model group, cyclophosphamide group and combined therapy group,10 nudemice were set as normal saline(NS) group.Cyclophosphamide group and combined therapy group were weekly injected with60 mg/kg cyclophosphamide for four weeks; besides, combined therapy group was given with allicin(10 mg/kg/d) by gastric perfusion for4 weeks; model group and NS group were given with the same volume of NS.Serum VEGF content was detected byELISA pre-treating(0 d) and on the3rd d,14th d and28th d; on 29th d, all mice were sacrificed and the tumor, liver, spleen and thymic tissues were weighted. Tumors were made into paraffin section for detecting tumor cell apoptosis and proliferation by TUNEL and BrdU method, respectively.Survival curves were drawn byKaplan-Meier method. Results:After treatment, both treatment groups relieved on viscera indexes,VEGF level,T cell subsets distribution and tumor growth and each index of combined therapy group was better than cyclophosphamide group(P<0.05 or0.01); only combined therapy group could significantly increase the lifetime of NB-bearing mice(χ2=5.667,P=0.017).Conclusions:Allicin can improve T cell subsets distribution and inhibitVEGF expression through its immunomodulatory activity, thereby improve the efficiency onNB in coordination with cyclophosphamide.