Chinese herb thunder god vine may help fight cancer

Taken by many people for rheumatoid arthritis, the herb seems to be quite effective. Researchers at John Hopkins School of Medicine have finally unraveled how this famed Chinese herb works, and their findings might pave the way to new uses of the herb in battling cancer.

An ancient medicinal herb
Thunder god vine is a perennial herb found natively in China, Japan, and Korea. The plant has been extensively used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 400 years to treat a variety of conditions that involve inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis.

Triptolide, an active ingredient found in thunder god vine, has been shown to be effective in ceasing abnormal cell growth. However, researchers did not know how the substance actually worked its magic. It seems that now they do have an answer.

Jun O. Liu, PhD, a professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins and the author of the study confirms that triptolide showed the capability to terminate the growth of all 60 National Cancer Institute cell lines when it was given in very low measured doses. It even killed many of the harmful cell lines.

Acts by blocking key enzymes
Triptolide acts by interrupting the proteins that activate genes, so Liu and his team of researchers set out to find out how it may affect proteins that were involved with controlling genes.

They found that triptolide successfully blocked one of the enzymes that make RNA, RNAPII. This is not the only enzyme that it acts upon. Soon, the researchers discovered that the active substance also blocks the XPB protein.

Blocking of the XPB protein terminates cell growth while blocking of RNAPII puts an end to inflammation.

The researchers are optimistic about further research on this Chinese herb.