Plant extracts against brain tumors

Silymarin is a flavonoid compound extracted from the seed coat of silymarin, a medicinal plant of Compositae It has been used to treat hepatobiliary diseases for more than 2000 years The main active components of silymarin are silibinin, isosilibinin, silibinin and silibinin, among which silibinin content is 50% to 70% Recently, the Max Planck Institute of psychiatry in Germany, in cooperation with scientists from Helmholtz center in Munich, found that silybin can be used to treat Cushing disease, a rare hormone disease caused by pituitary tumor, in cell culture, animal models and human tumor tissues Researchers have applied for patents and now plan to conduct clinical trials using silybin as a non-invasive treatment strategy Therefore, in the future, patients may not need brain surgery Cushing's disease, which cannot be confused with Cushing's syndrome, is caused by tumors in the pituitary gland After cortisol is released from the adrenal gland, the tumor can secrete an increased amount of stress hormone ACTH, which leads to rapid weight gain, high blood pressure and muscle weakness Patients are prone to osteoporosis, infection, cognitive dysfunction and even depression In 80% to 85% of patients, tumors may be removed by painful brain surgery There is currently only one approved targeted therapy for patients who cannot be operated on Unfortunately, this targeted therapy can cause strong side effects, such as hyperglycemia in more than 20% of patients Now, a team led by G ü nter Stella, an endocrinologist at the Max Planck Institute of psychiatry, has found that a harmless plant extract can be used to treat Cushing's disease in cell culture, animal models and human tumor tissues The results were published in the journal Nature Medicine After the mice were treated with silybin, the normal ACTH secretion of tumor cells was restored, the tumor growth was slowed down, and the symptoms of Cushing's disease disappeared In 2013, scientists at the Max Planck Institute patented a large family of chemical and natural compounds, including silybin, for the treatment of pituitary tumors In humans, only 5.5 of every 100000 people in the world suffer from Cushing's disease, which is more common in several pets For example, 4% of dogs and 7% of horses suffer from Cushing's disease Therefore, researchers now plan to use a very pure substance to test the specific formula, and release the active ingredients slowly in clinical trials "We know that Cushing's disease is caused by excessive release of corticotropin," said Marcelo Paez pereda, lead scientist of the study So we want to know what causes this over release and how to stop it " In their first experiment, researchers found a large amount of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) in tumor tissue of patients with Cushing's disease A normal amount of Hsp90 helps to correctly fold another protein, glucocorticoid receptor, which in turn inhibits ACTH production Because there are too many Hsp90 molecules in tumor tissue, they adhere to glucocorticoid receptor We found that silibinin can bind to Hsp90, which makes glucocorticoid receptor molecules dissolve from Hsp90 Using silibinin, we found a non-invasive treatment strategy, not only for Cushing's disease, but also for other glucocorticoid receptor related diseases, such as lung cancer, acute lymphocytic leukemia and multiple myeloma.