Alkaloids from Beach Spider Lily Induce Apoptosis of HepG-2 Cell by the Fas-signaling Pathway

Natural herbs products (mainly herbal extract formulations) with anti-tumor effects have attracted much attention in pharmaceutical research. There are a number of herbs that have shown to have the abilities to induce apoptosis of tumor cells and play important roles in cancer prevention. Genistein, daidzein and isoflavonoids in soybean are thought to play an important role in breast cancer prevention (Wang et al., 2002). CKBM and Genistein were found to induce G2/M cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 cells (Chen et al., 2003; Luk et al., 2005). Schisandra chinensis has the ability to reduce prostate cancer cell growth and induce apoptosis by inhibiting androgen receptor expression (Hsieh et al., 2002). Shin et al. found that Panax ginseng and Ziziphus jujube could stimulate activation of macrophages and induce cytokine release (Shin et al., 2002). Moreover, Lee et al. found that soluble β-glucans exacted from Saccharomyces cerevisiae could activate macrophage activity and stimulate highlevel TNF-α secretion (Lee et al., 2002), which may implies its pro-apoptotic effect on human cancer cells (Gillio et al., 1996).