title: Effect of combined treatment with cyclophosphamidum and allicin on neuroblastoma-bearing mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy of allicin combined with cyclophosphamide on neuroblastoma (NB)-bearing mice and explore the immunological mechanism in it.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30 NB-bearing mice were equally randomized into model group, cyclophosphamide group and combined therapy group, 10 nudemice were set as normal saline (NS) group. Cyclophosphamide group and combined therapy group were weekly injected with 60 mg/kg cyclophosphamide for four weeks; besides, combined therapy group was given with allicin (10 mg/kg/d) by gastric perfusion for 4 weeks; model group and NS group were given with the same volume of NS. Serum VEGF content was detected by ELISA pre-treating (0 d) and on the 3rd d, 14th d and 28th d; on 29th d, all mice were sacrificed and the tumor, liver, spleen and thymic tissues were weighted. Tumors were made into paraffin section for detecting tumor cell apoptosis and proliferation by TUNEL and BrdU method, respectively. Survival curves were drawn by Kaplan-Meier method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After treatment, both treatment groups relieved on viscera indexes, VEGF level, T cell subsets distribution and tumor growth and each index of combined therapy group was better than cyclophosphamide group (P<0.05 or 0.01); only combined therapy group could significantly increase the lifetime of NB-bearing mice (μ (2)=5.667, P=0.017).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Allicin can improve T cell subsets distribution and inhibit VEGF expression through its immunomodulatory activity, thereby improve the efficiency on NB in coordination with cyclophosphamide.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Children's Hospital of Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiang-Yang
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Children's Hospital of Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xian-Jie
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Long
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Children's Hospital of Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xian-Wei
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Children's Hospital of Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Children's Hospital of Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou, China. Electronic address: wuge73@126.com.
authors.forename: Guang-Jun
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hou
keywords: Allicin; Cyclophosphamide; NB–bearing mice; Neuroblastoma; T cell subsets