Immunomodulation of Traditional Chinese Medicines: Applications and Implications for Cancer Medicine

Abstract

As cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of death in Australia and worldwide, with an ageing population it is likely that malignancy will continue to be a major health problem affecting a significantly greater portion of the population. Therefore there is an ongoing need for the development of novel therapeutic treatment options including anti-cancer compounds and immunotherapies to improve the health outcomes of people living with cancer. Natural products such as medicinal plants are a vital source of novel drugs and advantageous because they offer unmatched chemical diversity with structural complexity and biological potency. Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) have been the subject of much research and are commonly employed as adjuvants to cancer treatment regimens due to their ability to confer protective, toxicity reducing and immunomodulatory effects. In particular, mushroom derivatives have been well studied and have been identified to possess immunomodulatory effects, but clear evidence of their ability to augment immunological responses against specific antigens is slowly emerging. Polysaccharides and glycoproteins in particular are thought to be the active constituents present in these mushrooms and in many Chinese herbs such as Astragalus membranaceus, Ligustrum lucidum, Coriolus versicolor, Ganoderma lucidum, Grifola frondosa and Panax ginseng. This thesis seeks to investigate the application of glycoprotein based herbal medicines such as Coriolus vericolor, Astragalus membranaceus and Ligustrum lucidum in the cancer context to modulate the immune response in vitro, in vivo and clinically.