Transcriptional profiling of Chinese medicinal formula Si-Wu-Tang on breast cancer cells reveals phytoestrogenic activity.

The use of traditional herbal medicine is widespread in China and other Asian countries, and is also rapidly growing in Western countries [32]. Despite its long history of use, many questions remain to be answered, due to lack of mechanistic understanding. In this study, we demonstrated, using a whole human genome microarray approach, the phytoestrogenic mechanism for a popular formula Si-Wu-Tang (SWT). Three major points are highlighted: (1) this is the first study to use DNA microarray-based gene expression generic cialis analysis to reveal phytoestrogenic activity of herbal medicine. The similar approach can be used for other natural products; (2) The genomic data

were validated by the “gold standard” method of gene expression study – quantitative RT-PCR; and (3) the discovery was confirmed by pharmacological assays such as cell proliferation and estrogen receptor luciferase reporter assays on breast cancer cell lines. The results presented here are very important for many women taking SWT for various conditions and clinical practitioners who recommend the use of SWT or other CAM with similar phytoestrogenic activities. BACKGROUND: Si-Wu-Tang (SWT), comprising the combination of four herbs, Paeoniae, Angelicae, Chuanxiong and Rehmanniae, is one of the most popular traditional oriental medicines for women’s diseases. In our previous study, the microarray gene expression profiles of SWT on breast cancer cell line MCF-7 were found similar to the effect of beta-estradiol (E2) on MCF-7 cells in the Connectivity Map database. METHODS: Further data analysis was conducted to find the main similarities cialis generic and differences between the effects of SWT and E2 on MCF-7 gene expression. The cell proliferation assay on MCF-7 (ER-positive) and MDA-MB-231 (ER-negative) cells were used to examine such estrogenic activity. genericcialis-onlineed The estrogenic potency of SWT was further confirmed by estrogen-responsive element (ERE) luciferase reporter assay in MCF-7 cells. RESULTS: Many estrogen regulated genes strongly up-regulated by E2 were similarly up-regulated by SWT, e.g., GREB1, PGR and EGR3. Of interest with regard to safety of SWT, the oncogenes MYBL1 and RET were strongly induced by E2 but not by SWT. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed a highly concordant expression change in cialis 10 mg selected genes with data obtained by microarrays. Further supporting SWT’s estrogenic activity, in MCF-7 but not in MDA-MB-231 cells, SWT stimulated cell growth at lower concentrations (CONCLUSIONS: These results revealed a new mechanism to support the clinical use of SWT for estrogen related diseases and possibly for cancer prevention. This study also demonstrated the feasibility of using microarray transcriptional profiling to discover phytoestrogenic components that are present in natural products. Source: Liu M, Fan J, Wang S, Wang Z, Wang C, Zuo Z, Chow MS, Shi L, Wen Z, Huang Y. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2013 Jan 10;13(1):11. References 1. Wang ZJ, Wo SK, Wang L, Lau CB, Lee VH, Chow MS, Zuo Z: Simultaneous quantification of active components in the herbs and products of Si-Wu-Tang by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. J Pharm Biomed Anal 2009, 50(2):232–244. 2. Yeh LL, Liu JY, Lin KS, Liu YS, Chiou JM, Liang KY, Tsai TF, Wang LH, Chen CT, Huang CY: A randomised placebo-controlled trial of a traditional Chinese herbal formula in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea. PLoS One 2007, 2(1):e719. 3. Ohta H, Ni JW, Matsumoto K, Watanabe H, Shimizu M: Peony and its major constituent, paeoniflorin, improve radial maze performance impaired by scopolamine in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1993, 45(3):719–723.