Abstract
Mistletoe (Viscum album L.) is used in German-speaking European countries in the field of integrative oncology linking conventional and complementary medicine therapies to improve quality of life. Various companies sell extracts, fermented or not, for injection by subcutaneous or intra-tumoral route with a regulatory status of anthroposophic medicinal products (European Medicinal Agency (EMA) assessment status). These companies as well as anthroposophical physicians argue that complex matrices composed of many molecules in mixture are necessary for activity and that the host tree of the mistletoe parasitic plant is the main determining factor for this matrix composition. The critical point is that parenteral devices of European mistletoe extracts do not have a standard chemical composition regulated by EMA quality guidelines, because they are not drugs, regulatory speaking. However, the mechanism of mistletoe’s anticancer activity and its effectiveness in treating and supporting cancer patients are not fully understood. Because of this lack of transparency and knowledge regarding the matrix chemical composition, we undertook an untargeted metabolomics study of several mistletoe extracts to explore and compare their fingerprints by LC-(HR)MS(/MS) and 1H-NMR. Unexpectedly, we showed that the composition was primarily driven by the manufacturer/preparation method rather than the different host trees. This differential composition may cause differences in immunostimulating and anti-cancer activities of the different commercially available mistletoe extracts as illustrated by structure–activity relationships based on LC–MS/MS and 1H-NMR identifications completed by docking experiments. In conclusion, in order to move towards an evidence-based medicine use of mistletoe, it is a priority to bring rigor and quality, chemically speaking.
Highlights
An untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed on 17 extracts of mistletoe commercial products using liquid-chromatography coupled to highresolution mass spectrometry LC-HRMS and 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
Weleda products have been considered as Iscador products replicates, as another batch. Those samples have been completed by Abnoba and Helixor commercial products (Table 1)
The mistletoe products are sold with the status of anthroposophic medicines in Germany and Switzerland to reinforce for example immunity in the context of cancer therapy
Summary
Based on the hypothesis that mistletoe products are potentially different in terms of composition depending on the season, the host, the processes (depending on the presence or the absence of the fermentation and extraction method...), we decided to explore the chemical fingerprints of products of the 3 sellers in Europe thanks to metabolomics technologies. With these technics, rapid identifications of novel compounds in complex mixtures of natural products is facilitated, with the additional help of molecular networking, and provides a way to monitor the production of target molecules. A peculiar attention was put on abundant component(s) in Abnobaviscum extract (host pini) that could participate to its recently described immunostimulating anti-cancer a ctivity
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