The effect of polysaccharide peptide (PSP) and paclitaxel (Taxol) on human breast solid tumor tissue in vitro

1735 INTRODUCTION - Polysaccharide peptide (PSP) is a substance isolated from the deep-layer cultivated mycelia of Coriolus versicolor Yunzhi. It stimulates both humoral and cellular immune responses, and is also a valuable adjunct in raising the white blood cell counts of patients treated with chemotherapeutic drugs. In in vitro experiments, PSP has been revealed that it may have the ability to inhibit the proliferation of leukemia, lymphoma, stomach and lung cell lines. Paclitaxel (Taxol), another plant product, which is extracted from Taxus brevifolia, is an anti-neoplastic drug. It has shown to be a promising agent for the chemotherapy of ovarian, breast, and various cancers. In this study, the effects of PSP and Taxol upon the metabolic rate and apoptosis on breast cancer tissues were observed. MATERIALS AND METHOD - 39 patients’ tissues were treated with 4, 2 and 1 mg/mL of PSP and 4.27 ug/mL of Taxol for 24 hours. ATP Bioluminescence was used to measure the metabolic rate of the tissues. SPSS was to evaluate the results. SUMMARY - All results of PSP and Taxol compared with the control group had significant effects upon the suppression of tumor activity. In 4.27 μg/mL Taxol, 81.82% of the treated samples showed a percentage decrease in metabolic rate greater than 50% when compared to the control. For the same kind of calculation, 4 mg/mL of PSP is 48.72%, 2 mg/mL of PSP is 51.28% and 1 mg/mL of PSP is 46.15%. The comparison between the used drugs and tumor grading is detailed in table 1. PSP showed a higher percentage upon low-grade tumors. Our study has proven that PSP has a direct anti-tumor effect reflected by the amount of ATP measured. After the treatment of the two chemicals, tissues of both groups showed DNA fragmentation. CONCLUSION - PSP has similar effect in vitro on decreasing the activity, reflected by measuring the amount of ATP and apoptosis, of breast carcinoma solid tumor tissue compared to Taxol. PSP has a potent to be an orally neoadjuvant agent.