The objective of this study was to investigate the anticancer effects of EMPS (edible mushroom mycelium polysaccharide: Tremella fuciformis) in animal models with colorectal cancer induced by AOM/DSS. The experimental groups consisted of Nor (normal), NC (AOM/DSS), EMPS (EMPS 50, EMPS 100), and PC (Fluorouracil). The NC group had the highest number of colon tumors, whereas it was observed that tumor occurrence was significantly reduced in the EMPS consumption group. The expression of Bcl-2, an apoptosis inhibitor, was significantly lower in the EMPS 50 & 100 and PC groups. On the other hand, the mRNA gene expression of Bax, a factor that induces apoptosis, was significantly higher in the EMPS 50 & 100 and PC groups compared to the NC group. The mRNA expression levels of TNF-α and COX-2 significantly increased in the NC group, but showed a significant decrease in the EMPS and PC groups, indicating inhibition of the cancer-promoting response of cells. At the phylum level of the mice's intestinal microbial composition, the proportion of Bacteroidetes tended to decrease, while the proportion of Firmicutes tended to increase with EMPS administration. This suggests that changes in the gut microbiota caused by inflammation can be influenced by dietary intake.

우르솔릭산은 항암, 항산화, 항염증 작용과 같은 다양한 효과를 지니고 있다. 본 연구에서는 우르솔릭산이 인간 흑색종 암세포인 A375SM과 A375P 세포에 항암효과가 있는지 확인하였다. 두 세포의 생존율은 MTT assay를 통하여 확인하였으며 증식률은 Wound healing assay로 확인하 였다. 두 세포의 apoptotic body와 apoptosis 비율의 확인을 위한 DAPI 염색과 유세포 분석을 진행하였다. 그리고 웨스턴 블로팅을 통하여 흑색종 세포의 우르솔릭산의 농도에 따른 apoptosis 단백질의 유도를 조사하였다. 우르솔 릭산의 처리 농도에 따라 흑색종 세포의 생존율 감소와 증식률 감소를 확인하였다. DAPI 염색을 통하여 우르솔 릭산의 농도가 증가함에 따라 흑색종 세포의 염색체 응축 이 농도 의존적으로 증가하였고, 유세포 분석을 통하여 우르솔릭산에 대하여 농도 의존적으로 흑색종 세포의 apoptosis 비율의 증가를 확인하였다. 그리고 웨스턴 블로팅을 통해 흑색종 세포 A375SM과 A375P의 우르솔릭산 12 μM 농도에서 cleaved-PARP와 Bax의 증가와 Bcl-2의 감소를 확 인하였다. 본 연구는 우르솔릭산의 농도를 0 에서 20 μM 수준의 저농도에서 진행하였으며, 물질 처리 후 24 시간 뒤 결과를 가지고 분석하였다. 본 연구의 결과로 보아 우르솔릭산은 흑색종 세포 A375SM과 A375P에서 apoptosis 관련 단백질들의 조절을 통해 항암효과를 일으키는 것으로 사료된다.

Recently, the area of marine resources has become concerned with sources for the next generation of the bio-industry. Until present, development of the marine resources has remained limited, although a large number of these resources are considered to have potential for various significant biological activities. Most marine sponges, marine algae and coral could be used to create specific compounds for survival against a harsh environment. Therefore, it was necessary that these materials needed to be elucidated with biological activities, such as like anti-inflammatory, anti-viral or anti-cancer effects for their utilization in the bio-industry. In this study, we screened extracts of marine resources for their anti-cancer effect on human colorectal cancer cells. These resources were collected at Kosrae of Micronesia on April, 2013 and extracted with methanol. Cytotoxicity of marine resources was observed. Of a total of 20 specimens, three specimens dose-dependently demonstration inhibition of cell viability. Furthermore, cells treated with these specimens for 48h were induced p53, p21, Bax and caspase-3. The results suggest that they involved p53-mediated apoptosis. Two positive specimens (1304KO-327 and 1304KO-329) were verified as the identical materials, which are Hyrtios sp. Unfortunately 1304KO-207 was not yet classified and needed to identify in the further study. There results suggested that marine resources with positive potential in anticancer effect would be good candidates as useful bio-resources.

해양생물을 포함한 천연물질은 신약개발의 원천 소재로서 매력적이며, 특히 무수한 미지의 해양생물들의 연구가 관심을 받고 있다. 기존의 연구에서 미크로네시아에서 채취한 해면동물 40여종에 대하여 항증식 효과를 다양한 암세포주에서 검색한 바 있다. 본 연구에서는 그 중 Cos-cinoderma sp.의 작용 및 그 기전을 살펴보았다. 특히, 암억제유전자 p53의 발현을 억제시킨 세포주(HCT116 p53KO 과 RKO-E6)에서의 차이점을 비교하였다. 세포생존률 시험에서 Coscinoderma sp. 추출물은 p53의 유무와 상관없이 암세포의 증식을 억제하였음을 확인하였다. 이 암세포증식 억제 효과가 p53 존재에 따라 다르게 나타나는지 알아보기 위하여 세포사멸 관련 단백질 발현양을 Coscinoderma sp. 처리한 각 세포주에서 비교하였다. 그 결과, Coscinoderma sp.를 HCT16 세포주에 처리하였을 때, p53과 Noxa의 발현이 증가하는 것을 관찰하였고, caspase-9이 분절되면서 감소하는 것으로부터 apoptosis를 일으킨다고 여겨진다. 반면, p53이 결핍된 HCT116세포주에서는 Coscinoderma sp. 에 의하여 p21과 mTOR의 발현이 증가되는 것을 확인하였고, 이는 senescence를 야기할 수 있다고 여겨진다. 본 연구로부터 Coscinoderma sp.는 p53의 존재여부에 따라 상이한 작용기전을 매개하여 대장암 세포주의 증식을 억제한다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 이는 새로운 항암제의 개발 가능성을 제시하는 것으로, Coscinoderma sp.의 활성 성분에 대한 지속적인 연구가 이루어 져야 할 것으로 보인다.

In this study, we aimed to examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms of KTH-13 (4-isopropyl-2,6-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol) which is derived from Cordyceps staphylindaecola in the cancer cells survival. The apoptotic effect of KTH-13 on various cancer cells, such as C6 glioma, MDA-MB-231 breast cancer, and A549 cells, was determined by MTT assay, and result showed that KTH-13 (0-100mM) dramatically inhibited the cancer cell survival. IC50 of KTH13 were 60.549, 53.512, >100, in C6, MDA-MB-231, and A549, respectively. DNA fragmentation result revealed that MDA-MB-231 cells treated with KTH-13 100mM undergoes apoptosis. To understand the action mechanism of KTH-13, the effect of KTH-13 on caspase which is key regulator of apoptosis was verified. The amount of cleaved capspase-3 and 7, executioner caspases, was increased by KTH-13 treatment, at time dependent (capspase-3 case) and dose dependent manner (caspase-7 case). And the cleavage of caspase-9 which is initiator caspase was also elevated in KTH-13 treated MDA-MB-231 cells showing time dependent manner. However, caspase-8 was not regulated by KTH-13, indicating KTH-13 specifically targets caspase-9 signal. As caspase-9 is closely associated with intrinsic pathway, the involvement of bcl-2 family was identified. Bax, pro-apoptotic molecule, was up-regulated whereas Bcl-2, anti-apoptotic protein, was down-regulated. And the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was increased about 10 times. Then, the survival signal was also observed. The phosphorylation of Akt and p85 was diminished by KTH-13 treatment at 2,4,6 and 8 hour. Collectively, results suggest that KTH-13 induces cancer cells apoptosis via caspase3, 7, 8 and Bcl-2 family signaling pathway. And the Akt and p85 is also involved in KTH-13 action mechanism.

In this study, we determined total polyphenol content(TPC) and total flavonoid content(TFC) of extracts from Korean cabbage and cabbage using a spectrophotometric method as well as glucosinolates concentration by HPLC. TPCs of Korean cabbage and cabbage extracts were 308.48 ㎍ GAE/g dry weight and 344.75 ㎍ GAE/g dry weight, respectively. TFCs of Korean cabbage and cabbage extracts were 5.33 ㎍ QE/g dry weight and 5.95 ㎍ QE/g dry weight, respectively. We found six different glucosinolates, namely progoitrin, glucoalyssin, gluconapin, glucobrassicanapin, glucobrassicin and 4- methoxyglucobrassicin in the Korean cabbage extract. In the cabbage extract, there was four glucosinolates, namely glucoraphanin, sinigrin, glucobrassicin and 4-methoxyglucobrassicin. We determined the cytotoxic effect of Korean cabbage and cabbage extracts in AGS human stomach cancer cells, HepG2 human hepatic cancer cells and LNCaP human prostate cancer cells by MTT assay. Dose-dependent relationships were found between the extract concentrations and cancer cell growth inhibition. The overall results support that both Korean cabbage and cabbage, the major vegetables in Korea, contain bioactive compounds such as polypheol, flavonoids as well as glucosinolates and they may play a positive role in cancer prevention.

Grifola frondosa has been used as an herbal medicine for the treatment of cancer, diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure. In this study, functional polysaccharide was obtained from Grifola frondosa using four different extraction methods: hot water(HwFP), homogenize(HgFP), acid(AcFP), and alkali(AlFP) extraction methods. The effects of these extracts on KB and HepG2 cell lines were then examined for any anti-cancer activity. Alkaline extraction produced a yield of 0.175% and the total sugar content of the extract was 54.97%. We were able to confirm that the polysaccharide extracts from the mushroom produce an anti-cancer effect. The cytotoxicity of AlFP and AcFP against HepG2 cells were 22.86% and 28.88%, respectively, and the cytotoxicity of AlFP against the KB cell lines was 47.76% at a concentration of 1, 000 ㎍/㎖. Therefore, these results suggest that the optimum method for extracting functional polysaccharides from G. frondosa is the alkali extraction method.

PDT is an established cancer treatment modality. This can be attributed to the attractive basic concept of PDT; Combination of two therapeutic agents, a photosensitizing drug and light, which are relatively harmless by themselves but when combined, cause more or less selective tumor destruction. Hematoporphyrin-derived photosensitizers are known to be stable and highly efficient. In this study, we conducted a series of experiments to develop light-induced anticancer drugs against oral cancer cells. We tested the cytotoxicity of photodin by MTT assay and observed cell death pattern (apoptosis or necrosis) by hoechst 33342 and propidium iodide staining methods after PDT. IC50 value of photodin was 0.65 ug/ml. At higher doses of photodin ( > 7.8 ug/ml), cancer cells died exclusively from necrosis after PDT. By contrast, at IC50 value, photodin induced cancer cell to undergo apoptotic cell death. The induction begins approximately 6 hours after PDT. We investigated intracellular localization of photodin by oral cancer cell via confocal laser scanning microscopy. Oral cancer cells dual-stained with photodin and organelle-specific fluorescence probes (Mitotracker, Lysotracker, ER-Tracker) revealed that an intracellular fluorescence distribution was restricted to cytoplasmic compartments with no detectable fluorescence in the nucleus. Confocal images of cells containing photodin were overlapped with the mitochondria-specific fluorescence probe images of the same cells. These results demonstrated that photodin may play the role of a photosensitizer for oral squamous cancer cells without swelling and inflammation. Therefore, photodin-based PDT is a suitable treatment for oral cavity carcinoma patients.

1,1- Bis(3’-indolyl)-l-(p-methoxyphenyl)methane (DIM- C- pPhOCH.3) is a methylenc - substituted diindolylmethanes (C-DIM) ana log that acti vates the orphan receptOl‘ nerve growth factor-induced-B (NGFI-B, Nur77) , RNA inteference studies with small inhibitory RNA for Nur77 demonstrate that DIM-C-pPhOCH:J induces Nur77-dependent and - independent apoptosis, and this study has focused on delineating the Nur77-independent proapoptotic pathways induced by the C-DIM analog DIM-C-pPhOCH3 induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in RKO colon cancer cells through decreased mitochondrial membrane potential which is accompanied by increased mitochondrial bax/bcl-2 ratios and release of cytochrome c into the cytosol DlM-C一pPhOCH.3 also induced phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-dependent activation of early growth response gene-l whi ch, in turn, induced expression of the proapoptotic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug- activated gene-l (NAG- l) in colon tumors in athyrnic nude mice bearing RKO cells as xenografts, DIM-C-pPhOCH.3 also activated the extrinsic apoptosis pathway through increased phosphorylation of c- jun N-terminal kinase which, in turn, activated C/EBP homologous transcription factor (CHOP) and death receptor 5 (DR5) , Thus, the effectiveness of DIM-C-pPhOCH.3 as a tumor growth inhibitor is through activation of Nur77-dependent and -independent pathways

Stachys affinis tubers are known for its high content of stachyose and eaten as an edible vegetable. In this work, we assessed on the anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferation activity of a various type of extracts derived from S. affinis tubers. The n-hexane and dichloromethane fractions were showed the high cytotoxicity on the cell lines including RAW264.7 macrophages, HEK293 human kidney cell, A549 human lung cancer cell, KB human oral cancer cell, and a PC-3 human prostate cancer cell. N-butanol and water fractions were not exhibited cytotoxicity on the tested cancer cells, limited in anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities. Nevertheless, the ethyl acetate fraction showed little harm to RAW264.7 cells but inhibited the production of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) significantly. In addition, it arrests the cell growth in A549, KB, and PC-3 cell while little cytotoxicity on HEK293 cells. Consequently, these results supported that the ethyl acetate fraction of S. affinis tubers could be a potential anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer ingredient.