Schisandra chinensis, also known as Xuanhe, Huihe and wumeizi, is the mature fruit of Magnoliaceae plant Schisandra chinensis. Schisandrin B is a pharmacologically active substance extracted from the dried and mature fruit of Schisandra chinensis after degreasing with absolute ethanol or other organic solvents. A large number of pharmacological studies have found that schisandrin B has obvious anti-tumor effect. So how does schisandrin B achieve anti-tumor?
In vitro experiments showed that schisandrin B could significantly induce apoptosis of human liver cancer cells and human leukemia cells, and reduce the survival rate of adenocarcinoma cells after UV irradiation. It selectively inhibits the activity of ATR protein kinase (a DNA repair enzyme) in DNA damaged cells, so that schisandrin B can be effectively used in the treatment of cancer.
In addition, schisandrin B is the only cardiovascular protective agent with dual P-glycoprotein and multidrug resistance associated protein-1 inhibition. This also makes it have the potential to treat cancer, especially multidrug-resistant cancer. Moreover, schisandrin B also showed inhibitory effect on P-glycoprotein mediated drug efflux from human intestinal cells. Therefore, the combination of anticancer drugs and schisandrin B can increase the absorption of anticancer drugs as P-glycoprotein substrate.
It was also found that (-) schisandrin B is one of the lignans of Schisandra chinensis that is more toxic to colon cancer cells. It can increase TNF α - induced apoptosis by inhibiting NF KB and egfrsignaling pathway of hela cells. Recent studies have found that schisandrin B can not only increase the anti-cancer ability of doxorubicin in experimental mice, but also reduce the chronic cardiotoxicity caused by doxorubicin. At present, schisandrin B may be the only compound with great anticancer potential that can be used as both chemosensitizer and myocardial protector. Moreover, schisandrin B can inhibit the epithelial mesenchymal transition and slow down the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells when cancer cells locally develop. Schisandrin B acting on P-glycoprotein can completely inhibit the function of P-glycoprotein. It has certain cytotoxicity to some tumor cells and can effectively reverse the multidrug resistance of tumors. Therefore, it has clinical significance. Schisandrin B can be combined with other drugs to further improve the reversal effect. Therefore, chemical modification or combined application with effective components of traditional Chinese medicine to enhance its anti-tumor effect will be a research hotspot of schisandrin B.
In addition, because Schisandra chinensis has a similar effect to ginseng, it can increase the body's defense against non-specific stimuli and enhance cellular immune function; Promote liver gluconeogenesis and decomposition, reduce serum transaminase, and improve the body's utilization of sugar; It can excite the uterus to induce rhythmic contraction, which is similar to oxytocin. In addition, it also has antibacterial, sedative, antipyretic and other functions. Schisandra chinensis is also widely used in food, food processing, additives, cosmetics and other fields,Schisandrin BIt is the high-purity activity of lignans, a medicinal component of Schisandra chinensis, which plays an anti-aging role. Schisandrin B is the only candidate drug with multiple functions of overcoming multidrug resistance, increasing anticancer drug resistance and preventing anthracycline myocardial toxicity, which has a good application prospect in clinical tumor chemotherapy. In particular, the prospect of being a reversal agent of multidrug resistance in tumor cells provides a reference for further development of Schisandra chinensis resources.