Elsevier

Leukemia Research

Volume 31, Issue 4, April 2007, Pages 523-530
Leukemia Research

Scutellaria baicalensis, a herbal medicine: Anti-proliferative and apoptotic activity against acute lymphocytic leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma cell lines

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leukres.2006.08.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Scutellaria baicalensis (S.B.) is a widely used Chinese herbal medicine. We initially investigated its in vitro anti-tumor activities. S.B inhibited the growth of ALL, lymphoma and myeloma cell lines by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at clinically achievable concentrations. The anti-proliferative effect was associated with mitochondrial damage, modulation of the Bcl family of genes, increased level of the CDK inhibitor p27KIP1 and decreased level of c-myc oncogene. HPLC analysis of S.B. showed it contains 21% baicalin and further studies confirmed it was the major anti-cancer component of S.B. Thus, Scutellaria baicalensis should be tested in clinical trials for these hematopoietic malignancies.

Introduction

Scutellaria baicalensis (Huang Qin or Chinese skullcap) is a Chinese herbal medicine which has been widely used as an anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer compound [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Recent studies showed that it can inhibit growth of breast, hepatocellular, pancreatic, prostatic, urothelial and colon cancer cells in vitro [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. In a prospective, randomized clinical trial, the combination of irradiation and a multi-herbal formula containing Scutellaria baicalensis decreased local recurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma more effectively than radiation alone [11]. Studies have suggested that the anti-cancer effect of Scutellaria baicalensis may occur by inhibiting PGE2 production by suppressing COX-2 activity in some cancers [11], [12]. Thus, interest is increasing to exploit this traditional herbal remedy for either prevention or treatment of cancer.

In this study, we found that Scutellaria baicalensis inhibited the growth of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), lymphoma and multiple myeloma cell lines. HPLC analysis showed that baicalin was a major component of the herb. Further studies suggested that baicalin constituted the major anti-cancer activity of the herb and effective concentrations in vitro were clinically achievable.

Section snippets

Cells and reagents

Cell lines used in this study were mainly obtained from American Type Culture Collection (Rockville, MD) and were maintained according to their recommendations. Several cell lines (Blin-1 and NCEB-1) were kindly provided by Dr. Sven deVos (UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA) and Lanotte generously provided the NB-4 cells. Myeloid leukemia cells (HL-60, NB-4, THP-1, U937), lymphocytic leukemia cells (Blin-1, Nalm-6), lymphoma cell lines (Daudi, Raji, Ramos, NCEB1) as well as myeloma cell lines (NCI-H929

Effect of Scutellaria baicalensis on the proliferation of a large variety of cancer cell lines

We initially examined the anti-tumor activity of Scutellaria baicalensis on a large collection of human myeloid leukemia, lymphocytic leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma cell lines (see Section 2). The first screening used the rapid MTT assay with a relative short exposure (4 days) to Scutellaria baicalensis (50 μg/mL) (Fig. 1A). Cell lines that were most sensitive to the herb included lymphocytic leukemia cells (Nalm-6), lymphoma cells (Daudi) and myeloma cells (NCI-H929). HL-60 myeloid leukemia

Discussion

In this study, Scutellaria baicalensis has strong anti-proliferative effects against B-lineage malignancies including acute lymphocytic leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma cell lines in vitro. It induced apoptosis of these lymphoid malignant cells and in the Blin-1 ALL cells, this was associated with a decreased expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL and an increased expression of Bax.

The herb also induced mitochondrial damage in these lymphoid malignant cell lines as shown by the measurement of

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants as well as the Sheryl & David Weisberg Trust, Lymphoma Foundation of America and the Parker Hughes Fund. H.P.K. holds the Mark Goodson endowed Chair in Oncology Research and is a member of the Jonsson Cancer Center and Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA.

Contributions. T. Kumagai interpreted and analyzed the data, provided drafting of the article, provided administrative support, collected and assembled the data. C.I. Muller, J.C. Desmond and Y. Imai

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