Anticancer effect of Coptis: destination of its two thousand years journey?

Abstract

Coptis has been used in Chinese medicine over two thousand years. Until Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) of China, composite formulae containing Coptis already reached 1500 recipes. They are for treating various diseases in terms of hot and dampness syndromes, which are kinds of infective and inflammatory diseases nowaday. The ethnopharmacological traits of Coptis have led to scientific research to unravel the chemistry and mechanism of its action in in vitro and in vivo models. Coptis and its composite formulae encompass a wide range of ingredients with a variety of bioactives responsible for their efficacy in prevention and treatment of various diseases such as infective, cardiovascular and diabetic diseases. Recently, we focus on effect of Coptis in cancer, especially hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Using molecular and cellular as well as OMICS technologies, we conducted series studies on anticancer effect of Coptis. Based on miRNAs chip array, we found miRNA-23a was upregulated by Coptis and berberine in HCC. We further demonstrated that overexpression of mir-23a could significantly potentiate the in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor effect of etoposide. We also investigated the involvement of microRNA-23a in p53-mediated inhibition of HCC by berberine. Discussion will be conducted on, is the anticancer effect of Coptis, destination for its two thousand years journey? And why Coptis can be panacea for multiple diseases?