Herbal Cascara sagrada Kills Pancreatic Cancer Cells in Vivo and Vitro

By Kyle J. Norton

Herbal Cascara sagrada may process a major bioactive compound targeted by the pharmaceutical companies for the development of a conventional medicine in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, some scientists suggested.

Primary pancreatic cancer is cancer that originates in the pancreas as the result of the alternation of DNA of the cell.

Most cases of pancreas cancer start in the cell on the surface of the inner lining tissue. However, as the cancer progress, the malignant cells of the pancreas, although unusual may travel a far distance away to infect other healthy tissue and organs.

The pancreas cancer was found to be the site of metastasis from renal cell cancer, lung, colon and breast cancers.

Scientists do not know the exact causes of pancreatic cancers, but they do know several risk factors that can make a person more likely to get the disease, including the genetic and acquired genetic mutation of p16 and TP53 and KRAS, BRAF, and DPC4 (SMAD4).

Other prevalent risk factors, including long-term use of tobacco, exposure to certain chemicals, overweight, and obesity, and unpreventable risk factors of family history, gender, the increase of age and ethnicity are associated with the early onset of pancreatic cancer.

However, most people with some of the above risk factors do not get the disease.

Researchers at the John Hoskins medical center suggested an unhealthy diet high in meats, cholesterol, fried foods, and nitrosamines may increase risk, while diets high in fruits and vegetable reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer.

In the change of lifestyle in the reduced risk of pancreatic cancer, the research team in the cancer program at the Ústav preventivního lékařství, after analyzing the total of 529 subjects, including 309 cases and 220 control subjects newly diagnosed patients with pancreatic cancer who lived in the region selected in hospitals in three centers (University Hospital Olomouc, University Hospital Ostrava, Hospital Ceske Budejovice) said, "Physical activity, dietary measures that will lead to weight loss and education to non-smoking can have a significant impact on the primary prevention of cancer."

These results suggested that if you follow a healthy diet and lifestyle with moderate exercise, your risk of pancreatic cancer is substantially lower compared to others.

Cascara sagrada is a species of buckthorn, genus Rhamnus, belonging to the family Rhamnaceae, native to western North America,

The herbal bark has been used in traditional medicine for gastrointestinal support. and it is thought to have a laxative and natural cleansing, etc., effect.

Besides the main compound of anthraquinones, other compounds of Cascara sagrada include anthraquinone glycosides, (emodin, frangulin, iso-emodin, aloe-emodin, and chrysophanol), rhein, aloin, malic acid, tannic acid, cascarosides A, B, C, and D, and hydroxy anthracene derivatives (HAD), etc.

In the reassessment of the effects of Emodin in inducing the apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells and inhibiting the tumor growth, researchers at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine conducted an investigation to examine pathways activated by Emodin during the anti-pancreatic cancer process.

In vivo and vitro, application of Emodin up-regulated the function of cancers cell death programmer and down-regulated the expression of proteins which are responsible for the production of the new blood vessels to provide energy to the pancreatic cancer tumor.

Emodins also reduced the expression of eNOS phosphorylation in regulating the vascular angiogenesis which was promoted by the tumor observed by both immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis.

However, Emodin had no direct effect on VEGFR expression in vascular angiogenesis, in vivo

These results suggested that Emodin may be a potential anti-tumor effect on pancreatic cancer via apoptosis and suppression of angiogenesis.

Additionally, in the study to explore the role of XIAP and NF-κB in potentiating the antitumor effect of gemcitabine by Emodin in pancreatic cancer, researchers found that
* In Human pancreatic cancer cells SW1990, Emodin or their combination (gemcitabine plus emodin) induces cellular proliferation and apoptosis.

* The combination therapy is more significantly inhibited SW1990 cell growth and induced a higher percentage of apoptosis, compared to those of Emodin treatment.

* Emodin or emodin plus gemcitabine downregulated the expression of XIAP and NF-κB similar to above study, compared to the control group in vitro

* The combination of emodin and gemcitabine showed the more significant reduction in the T/NT ratio, an indication of the risk of cancer onset, SUV, an indication on the response to cancer treatment and tumor weight compared to monotherapy.

* Emodin enhanced tumor apoptosis induced by gemcitabine in vivo.

These results suggested that Emodin enhances the antitumor effect of gemcitabine in SW1990 pancreatic cancer in vitro and in vivo by downregulation of NF-κB expression, thus inhibiting the expression of XIAP.

Where X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) plays a key role in survival and also promotes invasiveness.in cancer cells.

Taken altogether, herbal Cascara sagrada processed high levels of bioactive compound Emodin may be considered a functional herb for the prevention of pancreatic cancer and an adjunct therapy combined with primary medicine for treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Further data collection large example size and multi-centers studies performed with human consumption of the whole food or its bioactive compounds during the course of the disease will be necessary to complete the picture of herbal Cascara sagrada anti-pancreatic cancer possibilities.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Antitumor activity of emodin against pancreatic cancer depends on its dual role: promotion of apoptosis and suppression of angiogenesis by Lin SZ, Wei WT, Chen H, Chen KJ, Tong HF, Wang ZH, Ni ZL, Liu HB, Guo HC, Liu DL. (PubMed)
(2). Enhanced antitumor efficacy by the combination of emodin and gemcitabine against human pancreatic cancer cells via downregulation of the expression of XIAP in vitro and in vivo by Wang ZH, Chen H, Guo HC, Tong HF, Liu JX, Wei WT, Tan W, Ni ZL, Liu HB, Lin SZ.(PubMed)(3). [Pancreatic cancer and lifestyle factors].[Article in Czech] by Azeem K1, Sevčíková J, Tomášková H, Horáková D, Procházka V, Martínek A, Shonová O, Janout V, Kollárová H. (PubMed)