Strong Synergic Growth Inhibition and Death Induction of Cancer Cells by Astragalus membranaceus and Vaccaria hispanica Extract
Zoya Cohen, Yair Maimon, Noah Samuels, Hadar Brand, Aarón Sulkes, Baruch Brenner, Raanan Berger · Cancers · 2022
We present here a new, classification-based screening method for anti-cancer botanical combinations. Using this method, we discovered that the combination of Astragalus membranaceus and Vaccaria hispanica (AV) has strong synergic anti-proliferative and killing effects on cancer cells. We showed that AV induces the hyper activation of proliferation and survival pathways (Akt and ERK1/2) and strongly downregulates the cell cycle control proteins p21 and p27. Moreover, FACS analyses revealed that AV induces accumulation of cells in G2/M phase, supported by accumulation of cyclin A. Taken together, our results suggest that AV interferes with the cell cycle in cancer cells, leading to accumulation in G2/M and apoptosis. Further studies are needed to validate the generalizability of the anti-cancer effect of the AV combination, to fully understand its mechanism of action and to evaluate its potential as a new anti-cancer treatment.