Research progress of ginger in the treatment of gastrointestinal tumors

Cancer seriously endangers human health. Gastrointestinal cancer is the most common and major malignant tumor, and its morbidity and mortality are gradually increasing. Although there are effective treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy for gastrointestinal tumors, they are often accompanied by serious side effects. According to the traditional Chinese medicine and food homology theory, many materials are both food and medicine. Moreover, food is just as capable of preventing and treating diseases as medicine. Medicine and food homologous herbs not only have excellent pharmacological effects and activities but also have few side effects. As a typical medicinal herb with both medicinal and edible uses, some components of ginger have been shown to have good efficacy and safety against cancer. A mass of evidence has also shown that ginger has anti-tumor effects on digestive tract cancers (such as gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, laryngeal cancer, and pancreatic cancer) through a variety of pathways. The aim of this study is to investigate the mechanisms of action of the main components of ginger and their potential clinical applications in treating gastrointestinal tumors.

A medicinal and edible formula YH0618 ameliorates the toxicity induced by Doxorubicin via regulating the expression of Bax/Bcl-2 and FOXO4

Chemotherapy is the most common and powerful cancer treatment. Although the nasty side effects seriously influence the clinical practice, no better ways can displace it. Therefore, searching for safe and effective strategies designed to ameliorate chemotherapy-induced toxicity has become an urgent issue in cancer research area. In clinical, a medicinal and edible formula YH0618 showed the effects of reducing the DOX-induced toxicity, especially improving alopecia, nail discoloration, skin hyperpigmentation and fatigue. This study was to investigate the role and mechanism of YH0618 in ameliorating DOX-induced toxicity by in vitro and in vivo experiments. YH0618 selectively attenuated DOX-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in human normal liver L02 cells and kidney HEK-293 cells, and simultaneously potentiated the anti-cancer effect of DOX in breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells by apoptosis pathways. Western blotting results revealed that YH0618 attenuated DOX-induced apoptosis in normal liver and kidney cells through FOXO4-mediated mitochondria-dependent mechanism. Animal experiments demonstrated that, YH0618 did not interfere in DOX-induced reduction in tumor volume and significantly improved DOX-induced hair loss and the increase of alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Histological characteristics showed that YH0618 attenuated DOX-induced heart, liver and kidney damage. The study may shed light on the potential application of YH0618 as a novel medicinal food against chemotherapy-induced toxicity.