The formula used in the experiment consists of four herbs- extract of peonies, a pretty purple flower called skullcap, together with liquorice and fruit from a buckthorn tree Photo: AP
Known as Huang Qin Tang, the mix of plant extracts, roots and fruit has been used for hundreds of years to treat stomach upsets and nausea.
But now researchers have found that it not only does the same for patients on chemotherapy, it also increases the effectiveness of the treatment.
The strong drugs used in chemotherapy cause a number of toxic side effects because it kills healthy cells as well as cancerous ones.
This is particularly true in the digestive tract or intestines.
The team from Yale University found that in mice the use of the Huang Qin Tang mixture helped protect the intestine lining and helped it recover more quickly.
It also reduced inflammation and boosted the effectiveness of the chemotherapy to kill tumours.
The formula used in the experiment consists of four herbs – extract of peonies, a pretty purple flower called skullcap, together with liquorice and fruit from a buckthorn tree.
The researchers treated mice with colon and rectal cancer with chemotherapy, which shrank tumours but also caused massive destruction in the intestinal lining of the animals.
After a few days of treatment with PHY906, the medicine restored the damaged intestinal linings in the mice.
The patients lost less weight and saw more cancer cells killed.
"Chemotherapy causes great distress for millions of patients, but PHY-906 has multiple biologically active compounds which can act on multiple sources of discomfort," said Professor Yung-Chi Cheng, lead author of the study published in Science Translational Medicine.
"This combination of chemotherapy and herbs represents a marriage of Western and Eastern approaches to the treatment of cancer.
"We will continue to refine these processes to better study and understand the sophisticated nature of herbal medicines. Revisiting history may lead us to discovering future medicines."
古老的中医学可能对化疗病人有帮助
研究人员在《科学-转化医学》中报道
一项新的老鼠试验研究提示，一种有数百年历史的中药有可能通过刺激肠道细胞分裂及减少炎症来帮助减轻癌症病患肠道的化疗副作用。
该项研究将发表在8月18日（周三）刊的《科学-转化医学》上，这是由美国科学促进会（AAAS）这一非营利性科学协会所出版的杂志。
芍药和一种叫做黄芩的漂亮紫色花卉连同甘草及一种鼠李科树木的果实组成了黄芩汤。这是在中国用来治疗诸如腹泻、恶心和呕吐等肠道疾病的一种古老的草药。最近，西式的1/2期实验证明，这种药物可减少结肠和直肠癌患者中因化疗而造成的肠道的损害。
在这项新的研究中，Yung- Chi Cheng和Wing Lam及其来自耶鲁大学医学院及一个叫做PhytoCeutica, Inc.的公司的同事使用了一个仔细制备的这种药物的实验室剂型（叫做PHY906）。他们证明，这种植物混合物的愈合效应源自于它能将小鼠中的许多生物学过程作为标靶的能力。
Cheng说：“用简化主义的方法来治疗由癌症化疗或复杂疾病所触发的多种副作用可能是不够的。对用多种化学物质以多个部位作为标靶的传统草药进行严格的生物学研究可以使未来的医学得到发展。”
Cheng博士是 PhytoCeutica, Inc.的科学创办人并具有该公司的股东权益。PhytoCeutica, Inc.将传统中药研发成为治疗癌症的药物，并从耶鲁大学获得了使用PHY906的许可证。此外，这篇文章的2位作者拥有PhytoCeutica, Inc.的股票。耶鲁大学是该草药成分PHY906及将其用于化疗的专利持有者。
在这项研究中，研究人员对患有癌症的小鼠施行了化疗。化疗缩小了肿瘤，但也造成了小鼠肠道内膜的大面积的破坏。在经过几天的PHY906治疗之后，这种药物恢复了小鼠中的被破坏的肠内膜。该研究团队发现，干细胞信号转导分子的水平（称作Wnts）在接受PHY906治疗的小鼠中要高于正常。在经过更仔细的观察之后，研究人员发现，PHY906本身不会刺激干细胞信号转导分子的信号转导，但PHY906与一种在肠道中常见的细菌酶相混合则触发了干细胞信号转导分子的信号转导，而干细胞信号转导分子的信号转导则促使了受损肠道干细胞被健康肠道干细胞所更替。
除了补充健康的肠道细胞之外，该草药还阻断了炎症细胞向肠道的迁徙并减轻了炎症反应。这种效应看来是由PHY906的多种作用所引起的。这些结果提示，传统的中药可能是药物研发者的一种模型方法，因为这些药物研发者渴望测试各种药物的组合，他们希望药物组合的效果会比任何单一的药物效果更好。
Cheng说：“我们将继续完善这些过程以更好地研究和理解草药的复杂性质。重温历史可引导我们发现未来的药物。”
PHY906目前仅提供给那些参加某临床实验的患者。文章的作者提醒说，许多声称是黄芩汤的草药产品可能含有有害或无效的替代物，人们应该避免使用它们。
