Synergistically Antiproliferative Effect Of Paeonol And Chemotherapeutic Drugs On Human Hepatoma Cell Lines And The Possible Mechanism

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies in China, which tends to present at an advanced stage before it is detected clinically. It is not amenable to curative therapies and the prognosis of such patients is extremely poor, with a 5-year survival of less than 10%. Chemotherapy is one of the commonly used strategies in HCC treatment, especially for unresectable patients. But antineoplastic agents often achieve antineoplastic activity at the expense of close to unacceptable toxicity, which have been demonstrated a consistent response rate of less than 20% when used as single-agent in inoperable HCC patients. Thus it is imperative to develop more effective and low-toxic chemopreventive and chemotherapy agents for HCC. Chinese herbal medicine showed promising effects that combining with chemotherapy may benefit patients with HCC. Paeonol (Pae), a major active component extracted from the herb Pycnostelma paniculatum (Bunge) K.S., and the root of the plant Paeonia Suffruticosa Andrew, possesses extensive pharmacological activities such as sedation, hypnosis, antipyresis, analgesic, antioxidation, antiinflammation, and immunoregulation. In our previous study, the antineoplastic activity of Pae has been demonstrated in both...