Liu H, Wang ZY, Zhou YC, Song W, Ali U, Sze DMY. Immunomodulation of Chinese Herbal Medicines on NK cell populations for cancer therapy: A systematic review.
JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY 2021;
268:113561. [PMID:
33157222 DOI:
10.1016/j.jep.2020.113561]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Revised: 10/28/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE
Immunomodulation has become a crucial modality for cancer treatment. Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHMs) are expected as adjuvant therapy for immunomodulation against cancer, but face the key challenge of poor scientific evidence. Changes of natural killer (NK) cells on numbers and/or cytotoxicity are a novel respect to evaluate the immunomodulation of CHMs.
AIM OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this review is to investigate the immunomodulation of Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHMs) on NK cell populations for cancer therapy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A systematic review was conducted and outside mainstream electronic databases were screened for potential reference articles. This review tried to report and critically analyzed all the correlative studies, especially these clinical trials (3 CHM extracts and 11 CHM formulas).
RESULTS
Evidence-based functions of CHMs against cancer could be summarized as: (1) enhancement of NK cells activity or relative percentage; (2) prevention of tumor growth and metastasis; (3) relief on side-effects or complications of therapeutic strategies (i.e. chemotherapy, radiotherapy and resection). Briefly, most of cellular studies and two thirds animal studies were based on the extract or components of single herbs, whilst most of clinical trials were keen on formula or prescription of CHMs. The main components of CHMs were demonstrated active on promoting the cytotoxicity of NK cells, including Angelica sinensis, Ganoderma lucidum, Panax ginseng, Radix Astragali, Lentinus edodes, etc. CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive review demonstrated NK cells activity was positively associated with quality of life but not survival benefit of cancer patients. Thus exploring the roles of NK cells in adjuvant therapy against cancer is confirmed to be beneficial to explore the underlying relationship between immunomodulation and quality of life.
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