Cytotoxicity of anti-tumor herbal Marsdeniae tenacissimae extract on erythrocytes

Abstract

Marsdeniae tenacissimae extract (MTE) has been used as an adjuvant medicine for cancer therapy for a long time. Although massive studies demonstrated its considerable anti-cancer effect, there is no research on its influence on erythrocytes, which are firstly interacted with MTE in the circulation. To investigate the influence of MTE on erythrocytes, we used a flow cytometer to detect the MTE-treated alternations of morphology, calcium concentration, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in erythrocytes. We used hemolysis under different osmotic solutions to evaluate the fragility of erythrocytes. Data showed that MTE treatment dose-dependently increased the ratio of erythrocyte fragmentation (P<0.001) and shrinking, and elevated the forward scatter (FSC) value (P<0.001) and calcium accumulation (P<0.001). MTE induced ROS production of erythrocytes under the high glucose condition (P<0.01) and consequently caused a rise in fragility (P<0.05). These results suggest that MTE induces cytotoxicity and aging in erythrocytes in a dose-dependent manner, and presents the possibility of impairment on cancer patients' circulating erythrocytes when MTE is used as an anti-cancer adjuvant medicine.

Synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles from Marsdenia tenacissima and its anticancer activity of liver cancer HepG2 cells

“…Previous reports showed that the formation of ROS either inside or outside of the cell may cause damage to the cell membrane [29]. Recent research reported that MT induced cytotoxicity in erythrocytes due to the rising of ROS levels, elevating the level of erythrocyte shrinking and fragmentation [30]. This present study also reported that MT-AuNPs enhanced ROS in HepG2 cells.…”

The Antitumor Activities of Marsdenia tenacissima

“…As to the significant cytotoxicity of MT extracts, evaluating their clinical safety is very important. A recent study indicated that MTE induced aging and cytotoxicity in erythrocytes in a dose-depend manner through increasing calcium and ROS levels, elevating the ratio of erythrocyte shrinking and fragmentation ( 15 ). This result implied the potential damage on cancer patients' circulating erythrocytes when MTE was used as an anti-tumor medicine.…”

“…Modern pharmacological studies have revealed that MT has obvious antitumor, hepato protective, diuretic, and immunomodulatory effects and it has a specific effect on various tumors including ovarian cancer ( 12 ), liver cancer ( 13 ), adenoid cystic carcinoma ( 14 ), etc. Marsdenia tenacissima extract (MTE, trade name: Xiao-Ai-Ping injection) improves quality of life, strengthens immune function and effectively prolongs the viable period of cancer patients ( 15 ). Xiao-Ai-Ping (XAP) injection, of which the main constituent is MT, has been authorized in the Chinese market for decades to be used alone or combined with radiotherapy or chemotherapy for cancer treatment ( 16 ).…”

Risk factors and drug resistance in early-onset neonatal group B streptococcal disease

“…However, no penicillin resistance was found in this study, suggesting that the TEM gene may not be the major cause of the GBS resistance to penicillin. Finally, the ermB and mefA genes (Harimaya et al, 2007), which are closely related to the TetM gene for tetracycline resistance (Fischer et al, 2013), are worthy of further studies and may be associated with tumors (Hao et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2017).…”