紅麴萃取物 Ankascin 568-R 對腫瘤重量及化療副作用之改善效果

Abstract

Chemotherapy is one of the effective treatments for cancer. However, it not only inhibits the growth of cancer cells but also brings damage to normal cells due to its non-specific effect. Therefore, severe adverse effects such as poor appetite, body weight reduction, myelosuppression, immunosuppression, anemia, etc. would be resulted. Those side effects of chemotherapy can seriously affect the life quality, and even the mortality of patients. Thence, studies in the reduction of chemotherapeutic side effect became an interesting topic in recent years. Monascus is a traditional food additive that is widely used in China, Japan, and other South East Asia countries for thousands of years. Its fermented products have been proved for their advantages in hypolipidemia, anti-inflammation, cancer suppression, radiotherapeutics’ side effects reduction and other benefits. In this study, 5-fluorouracil (5 FU) with the combination of oxaliplatin (the first-line treatment for advanced colorectal cancer) has been used as the inducer of chemotherapeutic side effects in CT26 colorectal cancer subcutaneously induced mice. Ankascin 568-R, the extract of Monascus fermented dioscorea was fed to the targeted groups of mice for 10 days concurrently in order to evaluate the effect on chemotherapeutic side effects. The results showed intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of a total dosage 100 mg/kg BW 5 FU and 3 mg/kg BW oxaliplatin could induce chemotherapeutic side effects such as poor appetite and body weight reduction in chemotherapy only group. Moreover, the cellularity, colony-forming unit-granulocyte macrophage (CFU-GM), colony-forming unit-erythrocyte (CFU-E), and leukocytes lineage cells, erythroid lineage cells maturation in bone marrow was down regulated, and additionally the circulating blood cells reduction were found in chemotherapy only group indicated the causes of myelosuppression, immunosuppression, and anemia by chemotherapy. The oral administration of Ankascin 568-R limited those side effects of chemotherapy. In addition, the synergetic effect of Ankascin 568-R on cancer suppression was also shown in the results while 500 mg/kg BW oral administration of Ankascin 568-R can significantly reduce tumor weight comparing to chemotherapy only group. To understand the possible mechanism of the effects of Ankascin 568- R, we underwent the cell cycle assessment in bone marrow and colony stimulating factors (IL-1b, IL-6, IL-3, and GM-CSF) in spleen. Those results showed Ankascin 568-R could ameliorate the S phase cell cycle arrest by chemotherapy in bone marrow and upregulated the level of IL-1b, IL-6, IL-3 and GM-CSF in spleen. This study indicated Ankascin 568-R would possibly be a favorable candidate in food supplement or drug development for chemotherapeutic side effects moderation.