Anticancer activity of aconitine-containing herbal extract BC1.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was the investigation of anticancer activity of aconitine-containing herbal extract BC1 against two tumor strains with different metastatic potency: strongly metastatic Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) and its weakly metastatic counterpart (LLC-R9).


RESULTS
It was shown that low proliferative activity and high metastatic potential of LLC correlated with high refractoriness of this tumor to BC1 action, while significant inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis by BC1 were observed against actively proliferating and weakly metastatic LLC-R9. Maximal antitumor activity of BC1 (> 70% of inhibition of primary tumor growth) and antimetastatic action (88% of metastatic inhibition) were observed at the dose of MTD/20. High efficacy of BC1 against LLC-R9 was shown to be accompanied by 2-fold increase of apoptosis rate predominantly in diploid cells.


CONCLUSIONS
The obtained results showed the ability of aconitine-containing herbal extract BC1 to inhibit growth of primary tumor and metastases of actively proliferating and weakly metastatic variant of Lewis lung carcinoma.
Solyanik
Galina I
GI
R.E. Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine. gis@onconet.kiev.ua
Fedorchuk
Alexander G
AG
Pyaskovskaya
Olga N
ON
Dasyukevitch
Olga I
OI
Khranovskaya
Natalya N
NN
Aksenov
Gennadiy N
GN
Sobetsky
Vladimir V
VV
D000157:Aconitine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D018827:Carcinoma, Lewis Lung / Q000473:pathology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D029001:Herbal Medicine; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000157:Aconitine