Prevention and Immunomodulation Activity of Prunella vulgaris L. on Lung Cancer

The Chinese medicinal plant Prunella vulgaris L. (PV) has been successfully used for centuries in China for treatment of non small-cell lung cancer. However, there is seldom report about its function on lung cancer prevention. In the current study, two lung adenocarcinoma cell lines (A549 and SPC-A-1 cells) and heterogenic transplantation mouse cancer model(subcutaneous inoculated C57 BL/6J mouse with Lewis cancer cells) were used to investigate Prunella vulgaris L. effects on lung cancer prevention. We observed strong inhibitory effects of Prunella vulgaris L. on A549 and SPC-A-1 cells growth. The similar results were obtained in vivo study, inhibition rate of lung tumor deterioration by high dosage of PV was 63.56%±6.79% and low dosage was 33.45%±10.98%(P≤0.01). Furthermore, we found Prunella vulgaris L. could enhance thymus index whereas no effect on spleen index in tumor-bearing mice. The content of TNF-α in serum was increased in Prunella vulgaris L. group(P≤0.05) as well. Together, our results indicated that Prunella vulgaris L. possessed the prevention effects on lung cancer and might involved in immunomodulation during the cancer progression.