BACKGROUND Minnelide, a pro-drug of triptolide, has recently emerged as a potent anticancer agent. The precise mechanisms of its cytotoxic effects remain unclear. METHODS Cell viability was studied using CCK8 assay. Cell proliferation was measured real-time on cultured cells using Electric Cell Substrate Impedence Sensing (ECIS). Apoptosis was assayed by Caspase activity on cultured lung canc...

As the most aggressive form of skin cancer, cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) frequently affects young individuals, with a mean age of 50 years (Ferrari et al., 2008). Because of the resistance to current conventional therapeutic methods of CMM, approximately 13,000 deaths of CMM happen every year, but this has not been paralleled by the development of new therapeutic agents with an ideal effe...

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is among the most aggressive malignancies known and is characterized with rapid growth, early invasion, and complete refractoriness to current therapies. Here we report that triptolide, a small molecule from a Chinese herb, could potently inhibit proliferation in vitro, angiogenesis in vivo, and invasion in a Matrigel model in human ATC cell line TA-K cells at...

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide with poor survival rates. Even though a number of chemotherapeutic compounds have been used against this disease, stomach cancer has not been particularly sensitive to these drugs. In this study we have evaluated the effect of triptolide, a naturally derived diterpene triepoxide and its water soluble pro-...

BACKGROUND The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is an inhibitor of cyclooxygenase enzymes. Recent studies have shown that aspirin could be used as an anti-tumor drug. Triptolide, the major compound extracted from the Chinese herb Tripteryglum wilfordii Hook.f, has now been shown that it can inhibit tumor growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the...

BACKGROUND Tripterygium wilfordii Radix, a well-known traditional medicine in china which is used for treatment of inflammation, pain, tumor and immune regulation for centuries in china, accompany with the serious toxic side effects. This study was carried out for simultaneously analyzing the four main components (triptolide, triptophenolide, demethylzeylasteral and celastrol) in Tripterygium w...

Chronic rhinosinusitis is a chronic inflammatory condition that caused by many factors. However, the underlying mechanism of remains unclear. The current study focused on roles triptolide hydrogen peroxide treated nasal epithelial cells and underling mechanism. Hydrogen human were cultured different concentrations triptolide, cell growth death determined counting kit-8 flow cytometry methods. M...

BACKGROUND Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a major cause of end-stage renal failure, results from genetic mutation of either polycystin-1 (Pkd1) or polycystin-2 (Pkd2). In order to develop novel therapies to treat the advancement of disease progression, numerous rodent models of different genetic backgrounds are available to study cyst development. METHODS Here, a Pkd1-f...

Low solubility, tissue accumulation, and toxicity are chief obstacles to developing triptolide derivatives, so a better understanding of the pharmacokinetics and toxicity of triptolide derivatives will help with these limitations. To address this, we studied pharmacokinetics and toxicity of (5R)-5-hydroxytriptolide (LLDT-8), a novel triptolide derivative immunosuppressant in a conditional knock...