Antitumor activity of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides with different molecular weights: an in vitro and in vivo study

Abstract

The antitumor activity of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) has been reported, but the structure-bioactivity relationship has still not been fully elucidated. In this study, four watersoluble LBP fractions with serial different molecular weights (MWs) were separated from LBP, designated LBP-2, LBP-3, LBP-4, and LBP-5. After a characteristic analysis, the relationship between MW and antitumor activity of LBP was investigated both in vitro using murine hepatoma H22 cells and in vivo using H22 tumor-bearing mice. In vitro, the results showed that all the LBP fractions had significant inhibition on H22 cells, in which LBP-3 had the best activity. LBP-3 could induce apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential destruction, and S phase arrest in H22 cells. In vivo, the results showed that LBP-2, LBP-3, LBP-4, and LBP-5 could inhibit the tumor growth in H22 tumor-bearing mice by 18.18%, 37.97%, 9.09%, and 14.44%, respectively. However, only LBP-3 was able to decrease the tumor weight significantly in H22 tumor-bearing mice. Meanwhile, all the LBP fractions did not show significant toxicity to murine splenocytes, thymus, and spleen. Taken together, these results demonstrated that the antitumor activity of LBP was closely related to its MW, and LBP-3 with medium MW (40-350 kDa) was the main active fraction. ARTICLE HISTORY

Effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides with different molecular weights on function of RAW264.7 macrophages

“…The LBP fractions with different MW series, designated LBP2 (MW 350-400 kDa), LBP3 (MW 40-350 kDa), LBP4 (MW 8-40 kDa) and LBP5 (MW 3-8 kDa), were prepared as described in our previous study (Deng et al, 2017). The fractions were dissolved in cell culture medium and filtered through a 0.22 μm filter for in vitro experiment.…”

“…LBP fractions of LBP-a4 with an MW of 10.2 kDa and LBP-p8 with an MW of 6.50 × 10 3 kDa had different effects on the proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells that LBP-a4 could inhibit the tumour cells growth while LBP-p8 showed opposite activity (Zhang, Tang, Wang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2013). In our previous study, we found that LBP fractions (named LBP2, LBP3, LBP4 and LBP5) with serial different MW had different inhibition activities in H22 cells growth in vitro and H22 tumour growth in vivo (Deng et al, 2017). In the present study, to further study the relationship of MW and immunomodulatory activity on the macrophage function of LBP, the effects of LBP fractions (named LBP2, LBP3, LBP4 and LBP5) with serial different MWs (range from 3 to 400 kDa) on RAW264.7 macrophages function were investigated.…”

Polysaccharides from Chinese Herbal Lycium barbarum Induced Systemic and Local Immune Responses in H22 Tumor-Bearing Mice

“…LBP was prepared from Lycium barbarum by our laboratory as described previously [ 23 ]. The total sugar and protein content was 70.13% and 19.30%, respectively.…”

“…However, the effect of LBP on systemic and local immune responses in vivo , especially on phenotypic and functional changes of T cells, is still largely unknown. In our previous study, we found that a fraction from LBP had the highest antitumor activity in H22 tumor-bearing mice [ 23 ]. In the present study, we further investigated the effect of LBP on immune responses both in system and tumor tissue.…”

In search for potential antidiabetic compounds from natural sources: docking, synthesis and biological screening of small molecules from Lycium spp. (Goji)

“…Plants such as Lycium barbarum and L. chinense, also known as gou qi zi or Goji, wolfberry, Chinese wolfberry or matrimony wine, have been widely used in Asian countries for the treatment of a number of symptoms related to [12,19] diabetes, inflammation and as a tonic for well-being. The phytochemicals reported from Goji were claimed to exhibit antioxidant, antitumor, immunomodulatory, cardioprotective, antidiabetic and neuroprotective activities [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. The dried root bark of L. barbarum, has been shown to produce long-term hypoglycemic effects and reduced body weight in diabetic mice [23].…”