Centipede Anti - Tumor Effect And Toxicity Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Purpose1.To evaluate the efficacy of centipede monotherapy for tumors and to investigate which components of the centipede has antitumor activities,thus laying an experimental foundation for future additional studies of the antitumor activities of centipedes.2.To assess the acute and subacute toxicity of centipedes to guide its use in clinical practice.Methods1.Comparisons of effects of different components extracted from centipedes on the proliferative activity of HeLa cells.Effects of centipede extracts treated by different techniques on HeLa cells were determined by MTT and corresponding IC50 values were calculated.Effects of(1) different solvent extracts of centipede,(2) precipitated protein components in centipede solutions added with different concentrations of ammonium sulfate,(3) each component obtained by passing the centipede solutions through- a Sephadex-G25 column,and(4) different water extracts treated by different approaches on HeLa cells were compared.2,Comparisons of antitumor effects of intragastriclly-administered centipede aqueous extract in H22 tumor-bearing mice and alcohol extract in S 180 tumor-bearing mice.Changes in body weight,tumor weight,thymus index and spleen index were observed after intragastric administrationof water extract or ethanol extract of centipede in H22 or S180 tumor-bearing mice.Comparisons between the treatment group and the Control group were made to further study the anti-tumor activity and-toxicity of centipede.3.The acute and subacute toxicity of centipede aqueous extract or ethanol extract in mice.The acute toxicity and cumulative toxici-ty of centipede aqueous extract or ethanol extract were determined by continuous intragastric administration of the maximum doses in mice.Results1,Inhibitory effects on HeLa cells were most significant as demonstrated by the centipede 70%ethanol extract followed by the centipede aqueous extract.Cell proliferation were promoted by low concentrations while inhibited by high concentrations of each component.The ammonium sulfate precipitation interval was set to be between 30%and 80%of precipitation component.Chromatography showed that tumor cell proliferation was inhibited by effluents of t-he first 4 tubes and promoted by those of the 5^th to 14^th tubes.The cytotoxicity of the water extracts treated by different techniques was mainly attributed to macromolecular proteins,2,In vivo experiments showed that the centipede water extract and ethanol extract did not significantly differ from the negative control in terms of inhibitory effects on H22 or S180 tumor cells but promoted weakness and death of the tumor-bearing mice,suggesting toxicity.3,Acute toxicity studies of centipede extract in mice found that administration of centipede 48g/kg did not lead to death of the mice and that acute toxicity was alleviated within 1 hour.Sub-acute toxicity was not obvious.ConclusionCentipede contains not only components that may inhibit the proliferation of HeLa cells but also components capable of promoting the proliferation of the tumor cells.Macromolecular protein may be the main cytotoxic component in centipedeCentipede extracts show no antitumor activities in H22 or S180 tumor-bearing mice but may cause weakness and death of the mice.Centipede is poisonous but its toxicity is at a very low level.