Correspondent Yi Xiaofeng Science and Technology Daily reporter Li Liyun
A scientific research project jointly completed by Zhou Dan, director of the Department of Ophthalmology of Suzhou High-tech Zone People's Hospital, and Fu Songbin, professor of medical genetics at Harbin Medical University, was published online in the early morning of October 28 in the latest issue of translational medicine.
For the first time, the researchers used ursolic acid, a natural compound derived from Chinese herbal medicine, to fight retinoblastoma, confirming that this substance has good anti-cancer activity, and at subtoxic doses, it can inhibit cancer cells and is basically non-toxic to normal cells.
Screenshot of the paper
Retinoblastoma is a malignancy derived from photoreceptor precursor cells, which are commonly thought to be retinal stem cells or retinal precursor cells. The disease is more common in children under 3 years of age, with most children diagnosed in the first or second year of life, while adult cases are very rare. The disease has a familial genetic predisposition, can occur sequentially or simultaneously in one eye and both eyes, and is the most common intraocular malignancy in infants and young children, with no gender and ethnic differences in prevalence, which can lead to cancer deaths in 1% of children and blindness in one or both eyes in 5%.
Zhou Dan introduced that clinically, retinoblastoma has complex performance, it is difficult to find in the early stage, after the tumor gradually enlarges, most children have yellow-white reflections in the pupillary area, that is, leukotic pupils. Other symptoms include conjunctival and corneal hyperemia, edema and iris neovascularization, vitreous opacity, increased intraocular pressure and strabismus, etc., which are prone to intracranial and distant metastasis, and early detection and early diagnosis and treatment are undoubtedly the key to improving the cure rate and reducing mortality. In the past few years, chemotherapy drugs such as carboplatin, vincristine, and acetoside combined with freezing and laser photocoagulation have played a great role in saving the survival and visual function of children; if the disease enters an advanced stage, the probability of blindness in both eyes and tumor recurrence will increase, and the ototoxicity caused by carboplatin will also cause serious damage to hearing. At the same time, patients are at high risk of developing other cancers in their later years, such as bone cancer, brain cancer, and melanoma.
It is an indisputable fact that existing retinoblastoma treatment methods have adverse consequences for both the whole body and the local area, thereby limiting further clinical medication, which urgently requires industry experts to determine new strategies, develop new retinoblastoma drugs and target targets to improve the clinical efficacy of retinoblastoma patients. Chief Physician Zhou Dan's team and Professor Fu Songbin's research group closely aimed at this hot ophthalmic problem and deeply explored the anti-cancer mechanism of ursolic acid on human retinoblastoma cells derived from the natural compound. Ursolic acid contains pentacycline terpenoids, which can be obtained from folk herbal extracts that help protect cells from carcinogens.
The results show that subtoxic doses of ursolic acid not only modulate the drug target, but also effectively promote the decline in phosphorylated protein kinase levels, an increase in the stable form of the p53 gene (human tumor suppressor gene) and a decrease in the phosphorylated double micromer 2 gene, and also show the key participation of aliphatic coenzyme. By reducing intracellular glutathione, the cytotoxicity of ursolic acid is significantly reduced, and the attack on retinoblastoma is enhanced.
Expert evaluation pointed out that the above research for the first time revealed the mechanism of ursolic acid inhibiting the growth of retinoblastoma, provided a new scientific basis for the targeted treatment of retinoblastoma, opened up new ideas and new horizons for human beings to overcome the intractable stubborn diseases of retinoblastoma, and also expanded new fields for the development of the treasure house of traditional Chinese medicine in the motherland.
Editor: Zhang Qiqi
Review: Wang Xiaolong