ANTI-CANCER ACTIVITY OF WORMWOOD

Summary: Hausott and colleagues demonstrated that Artemisia-derived lignans caused cell loss by apoptosis in colo-rectal adenoma and carcinoma cells (Hausott B., et al. 2003)Hausott, B, Greger, H and Marian, B. Naturally occurring lignans efficiently induce apoptosis in colorectal tumor cells. (2003) 129: 569-576 J of Cancer Res and Clin Oncology. Rinner and his colleagues studied the effect of artemisia extract on cell lines of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) for its effect on proliferation and apoptotic rates. A strong antiproliferative effect was recognized (Rinner B., et al. 2004)Rinner, B., Siegl, V., Purstner, P. Effeth, T., Brem, B., Greger, H., Pfragner, R., (2004) Activity of novel plant extracts against medullary thyroid carcinoma cells. Anticancer Res 24:495-500. Artemisinin inhibits the growth of leukemia cells and is active against a variety of human cancer cells lines. A comparison between the cytotoxicity of artemisinin and that of other standard anti-cancer drugs showed that artemisinin was active in molar ranges comparable to those of established anti-tumour drugs (Efferth T et al. 2003)Efferth T, Sauerbrey A, Olbrich A, Gebhart E, Rauch P, et al: Molecular modes of action of Artesunate in tumor cell lines. Mol Pharmacol (2003) 64: 382-394. Singh and Lai showed that artemisinin can selectively kill cancer cells in vitro and retard the growth of implanted fibrosarcoma tumours in rats (Singh NP et al. 2004)Singh NP, Lai HC Artesiminin induces apoptosis in human cancer cells. Anticancer Res (2004) 24(4):2277-80.. Chen HH and his colleagues demonstrated the inhibition of human cancer cell line growth produced by anti-angiogenic effect of artemisinin derivatives (Chen HH et al. 2003.)Chen HH, Zhou HJ and Fang X: Inhibition of human cancer cell line growth and human umbilical vein endothelial cell angiogenesis by artemisinin derivatives in vitro Pharmacol Res (2003), 48: 231-236. Some of the major findings in this regard are presented below:

Lignans from A. absinthium induce apoptosis in colo-rectal tumour cells

Hausott and colleagues from Institute of Cancer Research, University of Vienna, Austria, demonstrated that wormwood-derived lignans caused cell loss by apoptosis in colorectal adenoma and carcinoma cells. The lignans caused a time- and dose-dependent loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), down regulation of the anti-apoptotic protein bclxl and an increase of the apoptotic index. The time interval until loss of MMP and down modulation of bclxl became evident correlated with the efficiency of growth inhibition by lignans. They also induced a shift of the culture population to the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. With respect to these results, wormwood herb containing these lignans could be useful in the therapy and chemo-prevention of colo-rectal tumour (Hausott B., et al. 2003)Hausott, B, Greger, H and Marian, B. Naturally occurring lignans efficiently induce apoptosis in colorectal tumor cells. (2003) 129: 569-576 J of Cancer Res and Clin Oncology.

Wormwood increases apoptotic rate in medullary thyroid carcinoma

Rinner and colleagues from Department of Pathophysiology, Medical University of Graz, Austria,.studied the effect of artemisia extract on cell lines of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) for its effect on proliferation and apoptotic rates. Growth kinetics and viability were examined using the Casy-1-Cell Counter & Analyzer and the WST-1-based cytotoxicity assay. Apoptosis was studied by DAPI staining, by measurement of caspase-3 activity and Bcl-2 expression. A strong antiproliferative effect was recognized with extract of artemisia. The authors concluded that the extract of A. absinthium possibly offers a new approach towards successful chemotherapy of the so far chemo-resistant medullary thyroid carcinoma. They attributed this effect to artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin found in artemisia plants (Rinner B., et al. 2004)Rinner, B., Siegl, V., Purstner, P. Effeth, T., Brem, B., Greger, H., Pfragner, R., (2004) Activity of novel plant extracts against medullary thyroid carcinoma cells. Anticancer Res 24:495-500.

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