Cancer
– a terrifying diagnosis, a rampant disease and a killer of loved ones world
wide. Cancer knows no mercy, it shows no compassion for our children or
our grandparents, our world thought leaders or our beloved neighbor. And
the treatment for cancer, those heralded by the giant pharmaceutical companies
and the mainstream medical practitioner is oftentimes as harrowing as the
disease itself.
But
it doesn’t have to be. There are alternatives.
One
such alternative cancer treatment is Thunder God Vine. The studies
have been numerous and the results have been very promising – which only
validates what practitioners of Chinese medicine have known for centuries.
Thunder god vine (Lei Gong Teng, Thunder
Duke Vine, or Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F) is made of many natural compounds,
and two key components are Celastrol and Triptolide, which treat
cancer naturally in different ways. Thunder god vine belongs to a group
of plants known as Celastraceae, native to the far east. The aerial parts
of the plant are toxic and can be used as a natural pest control, but the
peeled root of the plant holds intense medicinal properties and has been used
for centuries by the Chinese to fight cancers, tumors and inflammatory
diseases. Dr. Huanjie Yang at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
in Detroit, Michigan, studies the effects of different Chinese herbs on cancer
, and specifically, how different herbs effect the protease complex necessary
for the growth of cancer cells.
Cancer
cells, according to Dr Yang, require a protease complex in order to grow, as do
normal human cells. However, cancer cells seem more vulnerable to death
when protease inhibiting compounds are introduced to the body, causing aptosis
(or cell death) of tumor cells much more quickly than normal or non-cancerous
cells.
Triptolide, one of the primary
components of the thunder god root, is a
diterpenetriepoxide which inhibits tumor cell growth at low doses and causes tumor
cell death at higher doses.
According
to Dr. Yang’s study…
- Triptolide inhibited transactivation of NF-κB induced by Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) and further blocked NF-κB-mediated induction of the inhibitor of apoptosis c- Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein 1 (IAP1) and c-IAP2.
- Triptolide inhibited NF-κB transactivation without inhibiting nuclear NF-κB DNA binding activity … or even with increased nuclear NF-κB DNA binding activity.
- Triptolide inhibited the binding of p65 to transcriptional coactivator CBP/p300.
- Triptolide also suppressed the phorbolmyristyl acetate (PMA)-induced activation of NF-κB, in turn, inhibited the overexpression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), which is required for tumor cell invasion.
- In addition, Triptolide inhibited up to 80% mRNA de novo synthesis in various tumor cells by inhibiting RNA polymerase I and II, indicating that it hits a wide spectrum of targets.
Celastrol is the secondary compound
that was studied by Dr Yang and his team as a derivative of Thunder
God Vine.
Celastrol
is a quinonemethide triterpene isolated from lei gong teng. Dr Yang and
his team “predicted that celastrol is a proteasome inhibitor by molecular
modeling and later confirmed its proteasome-inhibitory activity by in vitro and
in vivo experiments” .
Celastrol
potently and preferentially inhibits the chymotrypsin-like activity of a
purified 20S proteasome with an IC50 value 2.5 μmol/L. In intact human
prostate cancer cells, cellular 26S proteasome was inhibited by celastrol at
1–5 μmol/L. The inhibition of the proteasome activity by celastrol results in
accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins and three natural proteasome substrates
(IκB-α, Bax and p27), and induction of apoptosis in androgen receptor-positive
or androgen receptor-negative prostate cancer cells. Treatment of human
prostate tumor-bearing nude mice with celastrol (1–3 mg/kg/day, i.p., for 1 to
31 days) resulted in significant inhibition (65–93%) of the tumor growth.
Multiple assays using the animal tumor tissue samples from both early and end
time-points demonstrated in vivo inhibition of the proteasomal activity and
induction of apoptosis after celastrol treatment. These results demonstrate
that celastrol is a natural proteasome inhibitor that has a great potential to
be used for cancer prevention and treatment [31].
Celastrol
has also been determined to be effective against other types of cancers, such
as breast cancer, inhibiting tumor growth effectively by targeting the cysteine
179 in the IκB-α kinase (IKK). Celastrol was able to produce cell death and
suppress NF-kB activation, which is a complex in cells that controls the
transcription of DNA. Improper regulation in the body of the NF-kB
inhibits the body’s response to infection and inflammation.
According
to Dr Yang, Celastrol also…
- Inhibits Hsp90 by resulting in suppression of its client proteins that play an important role in tumor initiation and progression.
- Celastrol also suppressed androgen receptor (AR) that mediates signaling important for prostate cancer progression .
- The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a client protein of Hsp 90, which plays a significant role in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-induced carcinogenesis.
- Celastrol suppressed AhR expression, resulting in decreased transctivation of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1, both of which encode proteins that convert PAH to genotoxic metabolites.
- Celastrol also inhibited antiangiogenesis by suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors expression.
Does
this research mean that Thunder god vine will cure every form of cancer that is
out there? No, it does not - but what it does mean is that is can be a viable
alternative treatment, and for those who do not want to undergo the chemical
warfare that is chemotherapy, this is an alternative treatment method to
consider.
References
Yang,
Huanjie, Jinbao Liu, and Q. Ping Dou.“Targeting Tumor Proteasome with
Traditional Chinese Medicine.” Current
Drug Discovery Technologies 7.1 (2010): 46–53. Print.
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