Analyses of the possible anti-tumor effect of yokukansan

Abstract

The Kampo medicine Yokukansan (YKS) has a wide variety of properties such as anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, and is also thought to regulate tumor suppression. In this study, we investigated the anti-tumor effect of YKS. We used Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC)-bearing mice that were fed food pellets containing YKS and then performed a fecal microbiota analysis, a microarray analysis for microRNAs (miRNAs) and an in vitro anti-tumor assay. The fecal microbiota analysis revealed that treatment with YKS partly reversed changes in the microbiota composition due to LLC implantation. Furthermore, a miRNA array analysis using blood serum showed that treatment with YKS restored the levels of miR-133a-3p/133b-3p, miR-1a-3p and miR-342-3p following LLC implantation to normal levels. A TargetScan analysis revealed that the epidermal growth factor receptor 1 (EGFR1) signaling pathway is one of the major target pathways for these miRNAs. Furthermore, treatment with YKS restored the levels of miR-200b-3p and miR-200c-3p, a recognized mediator of cancer progression and controller of emotion, in the hypothalamus of mice bearing LLC. An in vitro assay revealed that a mixture of pachymic acid, saikosaponins a and d and isoliquiritigenin, which are all contained in YKS, exerted direct and additive anti-tumor effects. The present findings constitute novel evidence that YKS may exert an anti-tumor effect by reversing changes in the fecal microbiota and miRNAs circulating in the blood serum and hypothalamus, and the compounds found in YKS could have direct and additive anti-tumor effects.

Common and distinct features of potentially predictive biomarkers in small cell lung carcinoma and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung by systematic and integrated analysis

“…Hub genes and their corresponded target miRNAs are presented in Table . Finally, 31 miRNAs, whose functions were correlated with tumor progression (Chang et al, ; Chang et al, ; Chen et al, ; Gao et al, ; Gu et al, ; Han et al, ; He et al, ; Kucuksayan et al, ; Li, Ma, Zhang, Ji, & Jin, ; Li, Ran, et al, ; Li & He, ; Li, Fu, et al, ; Li, Cui, Li, Zhang, & Li, ; Liu et al, ; Liu, Liu, Deng, et al, ; Liu, Liu, & Lu, ; Liu, Liu, Zhang, Tong, & Gan, ; Liu, Miao, et al, ; Luo et al, ; Tang et al, ; Wang et al, ; Wang, Cao, Su, Li, & Yan, ; Wu et al, ; Wu, Mo, Wan, Dan, & Hu, ; Xia, Jing, Li, & Lv, ; Xu et al, ; Zeng et al, ; Zhang, Hao, et al, ; Zhang et al, , ; Zhu et al, ), drug resistance (Bian et al, ; Gao et al, ; Lin, Xie, Lu, Hu, & Chang, ; Pan, Chen, Shen, & Tantai, ; Su et al, ; Xu et al, ; Zhou, Wang, & Feng, ), radiosensitivity (Liu, Li, & Gao, ), recurrence (Sim et al, ) or autophagy (Pan et al, ) in lung cancer, were identified (Table ).…”

A Review of the Effects of Natural Compounds, Medicinal Plants, and Mushrooms on the Gut Microbiota in Colitis and Cancer

“…Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer incidence and mortality in 2018 worldwide (Bray et al, 2018). Yokukansan, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula consisting of seven herbs (Table 2), exerted anti-tumor effects in Lewis lung carcinoma-bearing C57BL/6 mice, enriching bacteria belonging to the order Bacteroidales and family Desulfovibrionaceae (Han et al, 2019).…”

Anticancer Potential of Natural Chalcones: In Vitro and In Vivo Evidence

“…The supporting information can be downloaded at: . References [ 345 , 346 , 347 , 348 , 349 , 350 ] are cited in the Supplementary Materials .…”