Traditional Chinese medicine reduces the severity of radiation-induced gastrointestinal mucositis in rats

Traditional Chinese medicine reduces the severity of radiation-induced gastrointestinal mucositis in rats

For tens of thousands of Australians receiving radiotherapy as part of their cancer treatment, mucositis is a serious side effect that can cause inflammation, ulcers, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and bloating.

There is currently no effective treatment for mucositis, but researchers at the University of Adelaide have found that a type of traditional Chinese medicine reduces the severity of radiation-induced gastrointestinal mucositis (GIM) in rats.

This study - documented in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Oncology - outlines the potential benefits of this treatment for people who have GIM as a side effect of radiation therapy to treat stomach, abdominal and pelvic cancer.

Although this was only tested on rats, the results of this research are extremely positive as it shows that we may be able to offer a treatment for people suffering from mucositis as a result of their cancer treatment.

This is extremely important because mucositis limits the amount of therapy cancer patients can receive and significantly impacts their quality of life.”

Professor David L. Adelson, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, corresponding author of the study

In the study, which was approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of the South Australian Health Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), rats were subjected to irradiation to their abdomen.

Half of the rats received Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) - a form of traditional Chinese medicine - while the other half were given a control drug. CKI has been used extensively in China for many years, alone or in combination with chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

“CKI is prepared from the roots of two medicinal herbs – kushen and baituling – as an injectable liquid,” said Professor Adelson, Chair of Bioinformatics and Computational Genetics in the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science and Zhendong Professor of Molecular Chinese Medicine and Director, Zhendong Australia – China Center for Molecular Traditional Chinese Medicine.

"The study found that the rats that were administered CKI in the abdomen had reduced GIM symptom severity compared to the rats that received the control substance. These results build on previous studies we conducted that showed that CKI has significant effects on gene expression in cell lines, including genes that regulate inflammation."

Dr. Yuka Harata-Lee, a postdoctoral researcher in the university's School of Biological Sciences, was the study's lead author.

Co-authors of the research were Zhipeng Qu and Xi Xiao from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Emma Bateman and Joanne Bowen from the School of Biomedicine, University of Adelaide, Marianne D. Keller from SAHMRI and Wei Wang from the Zhendong Research Institute, Beijing.

Source:

University of Adelaide

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