HONOKIOL, A NEW HOPE FOR THE TREATMENT OF PANCREATIC CANCER

WHY ARE PANCREATIC CANCER SURVIVAL RATES SO LOW ?

One of the reasons why Pancreatic cancer has an extremely low survival rate is that it has an asymptomatic progression, so most of the times when patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed is because they have showed other metastatic symptoms of this terrible illness.

The pharmaceutical companies are interested in finding novel therapeutic agents able to counter pancreatic cancer and help them fight against it. In recent years some advance has been made and for what we have seen in several scientific publications it seems they are getting closer to get a new therapeutic agent able to enhance the effects of already existing drugs against pancreatic cancer.

HONOKIOL FROM MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA

A study from the Department of Oncologic Sciences, Mitchell Cancer Institute, recently published what it seems to be a new line of development focused on an active constituent found in Magnolia officinalis/grandiflora, Honokiol.

When Honokiol was tested against two pancreatic cancer cell lines, MiaPaCa and Panc1, alone and in combination with the standard chemotherapeutic drug, gemcitabine [1], the results obtained where quite a surprise.

Honokiol "exerted growth inhibitory effects on both the pancreatic cancer cell lines by causing cell cycle arrest at G(1) phase and induction of apoptosis". Honokiol also enhanced the cytotoxic effects of gemcitabine.

For those of you less familiar with these terms, Honokiol was able to cause the programmed cell death (apoptosis) in those cancer cell lines in which this wasn't achieved by the gemcitabine alone. Remember that cancer, by definition, is the uncontrolled growth of certain cells or cell lines (known as cancer cells), in which the normally occurring programmed cell death or apoptosis doesn't occur naturally. Therefore any therapeutic agent able to do that, as Honokiol does, will be able to stop cancer cell uncontrolled growth and let them die naturally as if they were normal cells, suppressing cancer.

In spite there will be further investigations needed and certainly new pharmaceutical drugs using Honokiol as new therapeutic agent, the discovery has opened the door to new hopes on the treatment of this terrible illness called pancreatic cancer.

[1] Honokiol arrests cell cycle, induces apoptosis, and potentiates the cytotoxic effect of gemcitabine in human pancreatic cancer cells.
Arora S, Bhardwaj A, Srivastava SK, Singh S, McClellan S, Wang B, Singh AP.
Department of Oncologic Sciences, Mitchell Cancer Institute, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, United States of America.
[2] Comparison of antioxidant abilities of magnolol and honokiol to scavenge radicals and to protect DNA.
Zhao C, Liu ZQ.
Department of Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
[3] Modulation of GABAA-Receptors by Honokiol and Derivatives: Subtype Specificity and Structure-Activity Relationship.
Taferner B, Schuehly W, Huefner A, Baburin I, Wiesner K, Ecker GF, Hering S.
[4] Honokiol inhibits LPS-induced maturation and inflammatory response of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells.
Li CY, Chao LK, Wang SC, Chang HZ, Tsai ML, Fang SH, Liao PC, Ho CL, Chen ST, Cheng WC, Chiang CS, Kuo YH, Hua KF, Hsu IC.
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
[5] Honokiol isolated from Magnolia officinalis stimulates osteoblast function and inhibits the release of bone-resorbing mediators.
Choi EM.
[6] Honokiol: an effective inhibitor of tumor necrosis factor-α-induced up-regulation of inflammatory cytokine and chemokine production in human synovial fibroblasts.
Li J, Shao X, Wu L, Feng T, Jin C, Fang M, Wu N, Yao H.
State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.