RESUMO
Previously we reported the antitumor activity of 4 kinds of Chinese herbs: A. capillaris, S. doederleinii, A. macrocephala and S. subprostrata. Evidence has been also presented that A. capillaris shows the activity mainly through a direct tumoricidal action and the others display the activity through the enhancement of tumor-immune response. The present results are as follows: A. capillaris did not affect Meth A tumor-neutralizing activity (Winn's assay) in spleen cells of BALB/c mice bearing the primary tumor. The other herbs enhanced the activity on days 10 and 15 and prevented the decay of the activity on day 20 after the Meth A tumor transplantation. However, none of them enhanced the local graft versus host reaction (GvHR) induced in CBF1 mice by spleen cells of BALB/c mice. A. capillaris hardly affected the humoral antibody formation against sheep red blood cells in mice. On the contrary, the other 3 herbs enhanced the formation. Blast transformation of murine lymphocytes with PHA-P or LPS was suppressed by 10(-5) to 10(-4) g/ml of A. capillaris. A. macrocephala enhanced the response by LPS. It should be noted that A. capillaris showed no immunosuppressive action in spite of having a direct tumoricidal action in vitro. Further investigations will be required on the latter 3 herbs to clarify the relationship between their humoral immunity-stimulating activity and their tumor immunity-enhancing activity.
Assuntos
Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos , Medicamentos de Ervas Chinesas/farmacologia , Animais , Formação de Anticorpos/efeitos dos fármacos , Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos/imunologia , Medicamentos de Ervas Chinesas/imunologia , Feminino , Reação Enxerto-Hospedeiro/efeitos dos fármacos , Ativação Linfocitária/efeitos dos fármacos , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos BALB C , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Camundongos Endogâmicos , Mitógenos/farmacologia , Neoplasias Experimentais/tratamento farmacológico , Neoplasias Experimentais/imunologia , Baço/citologia , Ensaio Tumoral de Célula-TroncoRESUMO
An immunosuppressive protein was isolated from Trichosanthes kirilowii root tubers by a procedure involving acetone fractionation and ion exchange chromatography on CM-Sepharose. Homogeneity of the protein was demonstrated in immunoelectrophoresis, SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, gel filtration, high performance liquid chromatography and a single NH2-terminal sequence. The protein had a molecular weight of 26,000, aspartic acid as the NH2-terminal amino acid and no cysteine or carbohydrates in its molecule. It inhibited ConA-induced transformation in lymphocytes isolated from spleens of CBA mice. The protein was also potent in inducing mid-term abortion in mice.