One nursery owner in Pasir Ris in particular has watched with amazement as demand for the plant has slithered upwards in just four years. Only a small group of people with kidney problems bought the Sabah Snake Grass initially from Mr Loh. He says: "At its peak two years ago, the demand grew from almost zero to about 10 customers each day asking or wanting to buy the plant from me. I often ran out of stock. Mr Loh said the popularity of the herb can be traced back to the story of a Malaysian's miraculous recovery from Stage 4 thyroid cancer.
The man, Mr Liu Hui Lian from Perak, was told by doctors in that he had only three months to live. Every medical treatment he tried proved futile until he found out about Sabah Snake Grass. After five months of consuming the leaves, he claims that his cancer had disappeared, he tells TNPS in a telephone interview this week. Mr Liu, 58, says in Malay: "This March will be the fifth year that my cancer has not returned. It's a bonus for me and there's a good chance I'm totally cured.
After Mr Liu's story was covered by several Chinese newspapers and a TV station in Malaysia, the plant's popularity soared. A website - www. Malaysians make up 56 per cent of those who had visited the site while Singaporeans, the second largest group, make up 18 per cent. Now, Mr Liu runs an eight-acre farm - about the size of eight football fields - that grows the herb. He usually gives away small samples to cancer sufferers. Mr Liu says: "If you believe that you can be cured after consuming the herb , half the battle is won.
Back Flora 5 6 Description and Ethnobotany Growth Form It is a scandent shrub, with upright branches drooping over, about m tall.
Foliage Its simple, opposite, stalked leaves are lanceolate-ovate, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, cm long by cm wide. Flowers Its dull red to orange red flowers are about 3. Fruits Its fruits are in the form of a capsule, 2 cm long, shortly hairy.
After the leaves have been thoroughly dried, the leaves were then ground into powder form and sequentially soaked in methanol at room temperature. The extract was then filtered using Whatman42 filter paper. The mice were fed with standard pellet diet and distilled water ad libitum.
Similar doses were reported with normal behavior in a study by Lau et al. Blood, tumors and vital organs such as liver, lung, spleen, bone marrow were collected for the following analyses. The weight of the tumors was recorded as well. After mice euthanasia, the spleen was aseptically collected and excised for isolation of splenocytes for immunophenotyping as defined in the previous study [ 19 ]. The splenocytes were incubated in lysis buffer 0. The procedure has already been identified and carried out with minor modifications [ 20 ].
Briefly, the lung and liver were harvested and then cut into small fragments in sterile condition. The cells were pelleted down and washed with PBS twice. After incubation, the plate was prepared with fixing of methanol and stained with crystal violet to count the number of colonies formed per organ.
Bone marrow smears were prepared from the contents of the right femur, as previously described [ 21 ].
Briefly, bone marrows were flushed with 1X PBS and smeared across a clean glass slide. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections of the tumor tissues were carried out as described in our previous study [ 22 ]. The stained tissue sections of 0. The level of nitric oxide production was detected using the modified Griess assay [ 23 ].
The nitrite solutions were prepared by diluting the standard solution with distilled water. The absorbance of generic nitrite solutions was then measured in order to plot a standard curve of nitrite concentration against absorbance. The concentrations of nitrite corresponding nitrite concentrations corresponding to the absorbance of the samples were read from the standard plot.
For quantification of MDA level, this procedure was adapted from the procedure by Samiaa et al. The procedures were performed in accordance with the manufactural protocol. The following day, the plates were washed three times with Wash Buffer. The weight of tumors was reduced in the low-dose group 1. Similarly, in Fig. Tumor volume also significantly decreased from The weight and volume of tumors from untreated and C. As rendered in Fig.
There was also a similar pattern in the NK1. To further refine the anti-metastatic effect of C. The population of natural killer NK 1. To elucidate the inflammation effect of C. The level of NO was decreased in both low-dose and high-dose of C. As presented in Fig. To determine the antioxidant properties of C. As shown in Fig. Level of nitric oxide assay from the untreated and treated groups low-dose and high-dose of C.
The level of NO decreased significantly in low-dose and high-dose of treatment compared to the untreated group. Level of MDA from the untreated and treated groups low-dose and high-dose of C.
The level of MDA decreased significantly in low-dose and high-dose of treatment compared to the untreated group. To determine the anti-metastatic activity of the C. In addition, the number of mitotic cells decreased in both the low-dose and high-dose of treatment as shown in Fig.
On the other hand, the clonogenic assay was established to elucidate the anti-metastatic properties of C. The presence of large and irregular cells was reported as metastatic cells in the bone marrow assay as shown in Fig. Histology analysis of the untreated, low-dose and high-dose of C. Notes: a Circles represent cells undergoing mitosis. Magnification: 40X. Clonogenic assay of mice organs.
Notes: a Lung, dilution factor: 10 3 ; liver, dilution factor: 10 3. Bone marrow cells stained with Giemsa viewed under a phase-contrast microscope. Notes: Circles indicate the presence of abnormal cells base on the different morphology. Previous studies have reported that the C. Therefore, our experiments have shown that the methanolic extract of C. Mean weight and tumor size were significantly reduced after days of C. These findings were showed as typical phenotypic features of apoptosis, and similar patterns were also reported the inhibitory benefits using water and petroleum ether protocols [ 28 , 29 ].
In response to DNA damage, a typical appearance of actively mitotic cells in C. Hence, targeted inhibition of tumors would generally affect only active mitotic cells [ 30 ]. Immune-mediated responses in malignancy are unique and diverse, such that the interfering of immune cell populations at different stages of tumor progression might be affected by the tumor aggressiveness [ 31 ].
Since T-cells are a pivotal player in the tumor microenvironment, promoting their function might have adverse effects on solid tumors. It was evident that the C.
Both T-cells and NK cells activity contribute to the eliminating of tumor cells by inducing cell lyses. The cytotoxic T-cells CD4 and CD8 cells and NK cells played a critical role in the surveillance and characterized their elimination of target cells [ 32 , 33 ].
Furthermore, increased CD3 and CD8 cells are also associated with improved cancer survival rates. Several studies suggest that cytokines also play significant roles in the regulating of immune cells [ 34 , 35 ]. For instance, IL-2 is necessary for T-cell activation and contributes to its clinical benefits, such as in controlling the survival of immature and mature T cells [ 36 ].
Therefore, the increased IL-2 secretion may contribute to the capacity of T cells activity, thus boosting the immune system. Cytokines involved in cancer-related inflammation represent a potential target and innovative diagnosis for clinicians and scientists.
The correlation between inflammation and cancer in the tumor microenvironment has been extensively studied. Indeed, inflammation can promote oncogene activation leading to tumor initiation, tumor progression and metastatic dissemination in the body [ 38 , 39 ].
Nitric oxide NO is one of the short-lived signaling molecules which act as an intercellular messenger in various immune and inflammatory conditions [ 40 ]. The MDA levels within the tumors are reduced when treated with C. Similarly, the antioxidant effect in hepatoma cells was also exhibited by decreasing the MDA levels.
According to the findings, it could be advocated that C. It also protects healthy cells and their cellular mechanism from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals [ 43 ]. The versatile platform may provide a chance of cancer cells to spread and develop in new areas distant from their primary tumors [ 44 ].
The inhibition of tumor angiogenesis and inflammation-related markers by C. Therefore, the finding showed that the C. In addition, the findings of bone marrow smearing have also shown that no appearance of atypical or erratic cells were found in the C. In conclusion, the methanol extract of C.
These findings also indicate that the phytochemical constituents present in methanol extract could be used as an alternative and complimentary for cancer prevention and treatment.
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