Evaluating the immunomodulatory and detoxifying role of Tinospora cordifolia and Solanum nigrum in the treatment of colorectal cancer

Colorectal Cancer may occur due to environmental pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and hydrazines. These are indirect carcinogens and initiate carcinogenesis after their metabolic transformation within the body. This causes more than 0.94 million deaths every year.

We investigated the prophylactic intervention of hydroalcoholic extract of Tinospora cordifoilia stems and aqueous extract Solanum nigrum leaves in 1, 2 dimethyl hydrazine induced colorectal cancer in Sprague Dawley rats. The chemopreventive potential was observed at low and high doses for 27- and 32-weeks duration. The chemopreventive potential of natural products was evaluated by estimating the change in body weight, diarrhoea, hematological parameters, change in cytokines level, cancer stem cells marker ALDH1, T lymphocyte subpopulation estimation by flow cytometry, confirmation of adenoma, adenocarcinoma and liver metastasis based on histology.

The high dose of the test drug showed a significant difference (p<0.05) compared to disease control groups animals with respect to blood and tissue-based parameters. The high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of herbal extract showed the presence of berberine, tinosporide, quercetin, ellagic acid and naringenin in natural products. Probable mechanisms involved downregulating mRNA of nuclear factor kappa B, matrix metalloproteinases-9, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 while promoting proapoptotic caspases, antioxidant capacity, interleukin-12.

The high dose of the test drug has chemopreventive and detoxifying potential against carcinogen induced colorectal cancer in animal model.