Silibinin, a drug derived from milk thistle, destroys lung cancer in mice, investigators at the University of Colorado, Denver report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Lead investigator Dr. Rana P. Singh told Reuters Health, "We have been studying milk thistle components, silymarin and silibinin, to examine their efficacy and mechanisms against different...cancers for over a decade."
In the current study, Singh's team injected mice with a chemical called urethane to induce lung cancer. The animals then received diets containing different doses of silibinin.
"We obtained pure silibinin from Sigma Chemical Co., and silibinin diets were commercially prepared at room temperature and air dried. We did not use milk thistle dietary supplements which are available for human consumption," Singh said.
Mice fed silibinin had fewer large lung tumors than untreated mice. Further analysis showed that silibinin seemed to reduce the number of blood vessels that provide nutrients to the tumors, allowing them to grow.
Singh added that further laboratory studies of silibinin for lung cancer are now being done. "We expect soon after that clinical trials with silibinin in lung cancer patients will be planned."
Human trials of silibinin are already underway for the treatment of prostate cancer.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, June 21, 2006.
Silibinin，一种来源于奶蓟的药物，能破坏小鼠的肺癌，科罗拉多大学的研究人员在国家肿瘤研究所杂志上报道了这一研究结果。
首席研究人员Rana P. Singh博士告诉路透社健康专栏说：“我们对奶蓟的两种组分silymarin和Silibinin对不同肿瘤的抗瘤效果及机制进行了十多年的研究。”
在当前的这一研究中，Singh研究小组将一种名叫urethane的化学物质注射到小鼠体内从而诱导出肺癌，然后给这些小鼠饲喂含不同剂量silibinin的膳食。
“我们从Sigma公司获得纯的silibinin，silibinin膳食是由商业公司在室温下制备并自然风干。我们没有使用现在大众消费的奶蓟膳食补充剂。” Singh说。
与未处理的小鼠相比，饲喂silibinin的小鼠很少形成较大的肺癌。进一步的分析显示silibinin可能减少了血管数量，而这些血管是向肿瘤输送营养物质使肿瘤得以生长所必需的。
Singh补充说，正在对silibinin对肺癌的作用进行深入研究。“我们预期不久将计划进行silibinin在肺癌病人的临床实验研究。”
用silibinin治疗前列腺癌的人体实验研究正在进行中。
来源：国家肿瘤研究所杂志 2006年6月21日
编者按：本文由丁香园网友雪中梅翻译。
编辑：西门吹血
