Bu-zhong-yi-qi pill alleviate the chemotherapy-related fatigue in 4 T1 murine breast cancer model.

Mingzi Ouyang,Ya Xiao,Yanyan Liu,Wei Tan,Ren Luo,Xiaomin Sun,Keqiang Yu,Jingru Cheng,Ying Huang,Xiaoshan Zhao

doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-497

Abstract

BackgroundPaclitaxel induced fatigue still remains underrecognized and undertreated, partly because of limited understanding of its pathophysiology and lack of effective treatments. This study is aim to evaluate the anti-fatigue effects and mechanism of Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi pill in murine 4 T1 breast cancer mice were treated with paclitaxel.MethodsBreast cancer mice established with murine 4 T1 cells were randomly and repectively divided into five groups: negative control group (NC), tumor control group (TC), paclitaxel group (PTX), Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi pill group (BZYQ) and Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi pill plus paclitaxel group (BZYQ + PTX). The mice were administered for 21 days. During this period, the tumor volume, body weight and the weight-loaded swimming time were measured. After the last administration, all mice were sacrificed, weighted the tumor, measured immune cell cytokines and oxidative stress indicator. The remaining 10 mice in each group were observed for survival analysis.ResultsTreatments with BZYQ + PTX and PTX significantly reduced the rates of tumor volume in comparison with TC starting on the 9th day and the 18th day respectively (P < 0.05-0.01), and presented decreased tumor weight compared to TC (P < 0.05-0.01). Compared with mice in TC group, the median survival time and the average survival time in BZYQ + PTX group, BZYQ group and PTX group were significantly prolonged (P < 0.05-0.01). The swimming time of the BZYQ + PTX group gradually increased, which is longer than the PTX group on Day 14 and Day 21 (P < 0.01). The level of TNF-α was lower in BZYQ + PTX group than PTX group (P < 0.01). The level of SOD activity in BZYQ + PTX group was lower than the NC group (P <0.01), but much higher than the PTX group (P < 0.01). The level of MDA of BZYQ + PTX group was higher than the NC group (P < 0.01), but significant lower than the PTX group (P < 0.01).ConclusionsBZYQ has the potential of alleviating paclitaxel chemotherapy-related fatigue in 4 T1 breast cancer mice by reducing the serum levels of TNF-α and modulating the level of MDA and the SOD activity.

Highlights

Paclitaxel induced fatigue still remains underrecognized and undertreated, partly because of limited understanding of its pathophysiology and lack of effective treatments
We have focused on the weight-loaded swimming capability, the tumor growth, and the biochemical markers level of Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi pill in 4 T1 murine breast cancer model treated with paclitaxel to evaluate whether Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi pill has beneficial effects on chemotherapy–related fatigue
We found that the paclitaxel group (PTX) group demonstrated a significantly decreasing muscle Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and higher MDA level compared with the negative control group (NC) and tumor control group (TC) groups, while the Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi pill group (BZYQ) + PTX group up-regulated the SOD activity and decreased the levels of MDA to that of the PTX group

Summary

Introduction

Paclitaxel induced fatigue still remains underrecognized and undertreated, partly because of limited understanding of its pathophysiology and lack of effective treatments. Various pharmacologic and nonpharmacological approaches have been studied, paclitaxel induced fatigue still remains underrecognized and undertreated, partly because of limited understanding of its pathophysiology and lack of effective treatments [6,7]. Chinese herbal formulae Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi Decoction (“Bojungikki-tang” in South Korea or “Hochu-ekki-to” in Japanese) is composed of 10 species of medicinal plants (as shown in Table 1) [8], has been widely used in traditional medicine in China, Japan, Korea and so on This herbal prescription has been identified as an effective medication to improve the quality of life and nutritional status [9]. Some clinical studies of Bu-ZhongYi-Qi Decoction have shown beneficial effects on cancer-related fatigue and quality of lives among cancer patients [17]

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