Paris saponin II of Rhizoma Paridis--a novel inducer of apoptosis in human ovarian cancer cells.

Rhizoma Paridis (dried root and rhizome) has been an essential ingredient in traditional Chinese herbal medicine. In the past decade, active components of Rhizoma Paridis - the Paris saponins have emerged as promising anti-cancer agents. Among these saponins, polyphyllin D (Paris saponin (PS) I), has been extensively studied and proposed to be a potent antitumor agent. In this study, we continue to establish the efficacy and mechanisms underlying the cytotoxic effects of the steroidal PS members, namely formosanin C (PSII) in ovarian cancer treatment. We isolated PSII and evaluated its effects on a panel of ten human cell lines. Isolated PSII has potent inhibitory effects on the growth of tumor cells without deleterious effects to different normal cell types or benign neoplastic derived cells. While PSII, PSI, and etoposide are effective promoting agents for cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, PSII appeared to be marginally more potent than the later two in inhibiting SKOV3 cell growth. In PSII-treated SKOV3 cells, there was an elevation in proapoptotic elements including Bax, cytosolic cytochrome c, activated-caspase-3, and activated-caspase-9. The treatment also reduced extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) phosphorylation and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 expression. We also assessed the antitumor efficacy of intraperitoneal administration of PSII in human SKOV3 ovarian cancer xenografts in athymic mice. PSII treatment significantly inhibited the growth of xenograft tumors relative to controls by 70% (p < 0.05). These findings demonstrated that, in addition to the unique selectivity against cancer cells, PSII is a potent antitumor molecule that may be developed as a cancer therapeutic agent.

Adeno-associated virus-mediated delivery of a mutant endostatin in combination with carboplatin treatment inhibits orthotopic growth of ovarian cancer and improves long-term survival.

A human ovarian cancer cell line, which migrates to mouse ovaries and establishes peritoneal carcinomatosis, was used to evaluate the cooperative effect of an antiangiogenic gene therapy combined with chemotherapy. The ovarian carcinoma cell line MA148 was genetically modified by "Sleeping Beauty" transposon-mediated delivery of DsRed2 fluorescent protein. Stable, high-level expression of DsRed protein enabled in vivo imaging of peritoneal dissemination of ovarian cancer. Both external and internal imaging, along with histopathology, showed migration of i.p. injected human ovarian cancer cell line to mouse ovaries. Using this model, we evaluated the effect of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated expression of a mutant endostatin either alone or in combination with carboplatin treatment. A single i.m. injection of recombinant AAV (rAAV)-mutant human endostatin with P125A substitution (P125A-endostatin) showed sustained expression of mutant endostatin. Antiangiogenic gene therapy inhibited orthotopic growth of ovarian cancer and resulted in 33% long-term tumor-free survival. A single cycle of carboplatin treatment combined with mutant endostatin gene therapy resulted in 60% of the animals remaining tumor free for >200 days, which was significantly better than rAAV-LacZ and/or carboplatin. Combination treatment delayed tumor appearance in 40% of the animals, wherein the residual tumors were smaller in size with limited or no peritoneal metastasis. These studies suggest that AAV-mediated gene therapy of P125A-endostatin in combination with carboplatin is a useful method to inhibit peritoneal dissemination of ovarian carcinoma.