In vivo and in vitro study on the role of 3, 3'-Diindolylmethane (DIM) in treatment and prevention of nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Menée sur des cellules de carcinome rhinopharyngé et à l'aide d'un modèle murin, cette étude analyse le rôle préventif et curatif du 3,3'- di-indolylméthane, une substance végétale présente dans les crucifères
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is characterized by insidious progression and atypical early symptoms, and mostly diagnosed in middle or late stages. The long-term prognosis is not very good after conventional radiotherapy or chemotherapy, and the therapy often has strong toxic effects on normal tissue and organs. There were in-vitro and in-vivo pre-clinical evidences to support chemotherapeutic and chemopreventive effect of 3, 3'-Diindolylmethane (DIM), which was a natural compound extracted from cruciferous plants. The in-vitro experiments showed that 100µM DIM DIM could induce remarkable apoptosis of NPC cells, and no obvious damage was observed in normal human bronchial epithelial cells and human liver cells(P <0.01). DIM could simultaneously regulate several signaling pathways directly related to NPC, such as PI3K, MAPK, Akt and NF-κB. In animal model of nasopharyngeal heterotopic transplanted tumors, the volume of transplanted tumor in animal raised by feed containing DIM was significantly less than that of control group (P<0.01). The animals with 2 weeks of preventive feeding with feed containing DIM before inoculation had the smallest volume of transplanted tumor (P<0.01). Intake of DIM had no toxic effects on vital organs such as heart, liver and kidney of experimental animals. In summary, the results of this study confirmed that the DIM effectively induced apoptosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells, and had a preventive and curative role in the development and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The drug was safe and had no toxic effects on normal tissues and organs.
http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/04/06/carcin.bgt122.abstract