The Effects of Luteolin on Cancer Cells

An exciting new breakthrough has been discovered in cancer research that can help fight

cancer cells in an alternative way. Luteolin, a Chinese medicine and flavonoid commonly found

in plants, is known to have anticancer effects on tumors (Han et al., 2016). Researchers wanted

to figure out how luteolin functions in our cells to cause a quicker death of cancer cells. This is

important because chemotherapy and radiation are very tough on the body, making a patient sick

and frail. In comparison, luteolin is much more natural because the cancerous cell goes through

cell apoptosis, or the cell life cycle, faster than normal. I am interested in this topic because I

enjoy learning about biology and cellular processes. Also, I feel that learning about alternative

ways of fighting cancer is fascinating to study and could be useful in the future.

Chemotherapy is a traditional way of treating cancer. It is a drug that is given to a patient

that works throughout the body, attacking cancer in any part of the patient’s body (American

Cancer Society, 2016). Most of the time, chemotherapy is used to control cancer, however, it

could take years to know if it is gone. Additionally, it could shrink tumors and release pressure

from a certain area. According to the American Cancer Society (2016), chemotherapy is often

used with different types of drugs to attack the cancer, however one chemo drug may work too.

An oncologist must determine the types of chemo drugs and amounts a patient takes based on the

severity of the cancer, health of the patient, and any other health complications that may affect

the patient’s treatment (American Cancer Society, 2016). The Institute for Quality and Efficiency

in Health Care (IQWiG, 2016) explains that chemotherapy can come as a tablet or be injected

into the bloodstream to reach all parts of a patient’s body. A patient will have times when they

take drugs and times where they rest. These are called cycles. Cycles can vary between patients
and the severity of cancer being treated. Once the drug is in the bloodstream, it attacks any cells

that are dividing quickly. Most of the time, the quickly dividing cells are cancer cells, but

occasionally it attacks healthy cells too like hair cells or cells in the digestive system, making a

patient “...have short-term effects like ​hair loss​, ​anemia​, ​nausea​, ​vomiting​, ​diarrhea​ and

infections in the mouth.” (IQWiG, 2016, para. 6). Every person reacts to chemotherapy drugs

differently.

Radiation therapy is commonly used with chemotherapy drugs when fighting cancer.

Radiation is concentrated on cancer cells to destroy them and shrink tumors (Cancer, 2017). The

DNA in these cancer cells are harmed by the radiation to the point of preventing cell division and

even causing cell death. According to Cancer (2017), “Radiation therapy does not kill cancer

cells right away. It takes days or weeks of treatment before DNA is damaged enough for cancer

cells to die. (para. 3)”. Patients have the choice of two popular types of radiation therapy:

external beam radiation and internal radiation. External beam radiation comes from a machine

that points to specific areas around a target area, only killing cancer within that general region.

Patients are generally treated with external beams once a day for five day then allowing time for

healthy cells to recover. Internal radiation is when radiation is put in the patient’s body, either as

a solid or liquid. A solid source of radiation is put in the body and concentrated in a certain area,

while a liquid source travels through the bloodstream, finding any cancer it can kill. Some solid

implants may stay in a patient for a few minutes or even permanently. Receiving internal

radiation will make a person give off radiation (either from body fluids, if given a liquid

radiation, or from the solid source in the body). Like chemotherapy, radiation can shrink tumors

and ease any pain or symptoms a patient may have when dealing with cancer. One downfall to
radiation therapy is that your body can only deal with certain amounts of radiation until it’s

unsafe to do. Another issue is that healthy cells are also affected by radiation, causing painful

side effects to the patients. Some side effects include fatigue, skin change, and hair loss, however

there are other effects depending on which area is treated with radiation. Eating lots of calories

and protein gives patients more energy when recovering (Cancer, 2017). Traditional ways of

treating cancer can be effective, yet also harm the patient. Going through weeks or months of

nausea, hair loss, pain, weight loss and fatigue can negatively impact a patient and their family

over time. Thankfully, technology is advancing and scientists are discovering new ways to get

rid of cancer, faster and better than before.

Luteolin, a traditional Chinese medicine, could possibly attack cancer in a new way. It is

known to have anticancer and antioxidant effects, which may be beneficial in fighting cancer

(Han et al., 2016). It is also known to remove jaundice, edema, reduce heat and any pain in a

person (Niu J. X., Guo H. P., Gan H. M., Bao L. D., & Ren J. J., 2015). In one article,

researchers wanted to find a treatment for later stages of HCC, or hepatocellular carcinoma, since

traditional methods are not effective on these cancer cells (Cao et al., 2017). Luteolin’s

anticancer effects are already known to suppress the growth of tumors of HCC in mice (Niu et

al., 2015) and slow down cancer cell growth, however, researchers want to explore how luteolin

does this by controlling cell autophagy. Autophagy is a natural process in which a cell consumes

its own damaged organelles and proteins when under stress or fighting a disease and reuses any

parts from the old cells. Apoptosis (a programmed cell death that is natural in all cells) and

autophagy have a complicated relationship, however, the first study demonstrates how they work

together with luteolin in hepatocellular carcinoma (Cao et al., 2017).

 The next article is about how luteolin affects prostate cancer cells (Han et al., 2016).

Prostate cancer is the most common cancerous tumor in old men. MicroRNA’s, or miRs, were

recently found to speed up tumor progression and the making of proteins in these prostate cancer

cells. Scientists compared miRs in prostate cancer cells with and without luteolin to see its

effects on the cancerous cells. Research was done on 54 men in a hospital in the Republic of

China between July 2005 and July of 2010 with newly found prostate cancer. The lack of

diversity and low numbers of the examination could skew the resulting data. MiR-301 is found to

work like luteolin in prostate cancer and it’s also found in the progression of prostate cancer

(Han et al., 2016).

The third article explores how luteolin affects specific genes in hepatoma tissue in mice

(Niu et al., 2015). The two previous articles explain luteolin’s anticancer effects in the body,

however, the third article includes more information regarding how it reduces tumors and pain in

a person. Mice were given different amounts of luteolin to see how different the effects would

be. How luteolin works in cells is unknown, so researchers wanted to find how it works in order

to possibly apply it to future medicine in humans (Niu et al., 2015).

Results in the first article discovered numerous concepts about luteolin (Cao et al.,

2017). To start, the researchers found that “...the effect of luteolin on cell viability of

SMMC-7721 [specific hepatocellular carcinoma] cells was time-dependent and dose-dependent”

(Cao et al., 2017) They also found that luteolin made the cells stuck in the G0 and G1 phase of

interphase (in which cells are not dividing), while the amount of cells in G2 and metaphase

(phases when cells prepare to divide and actually divide) decreased significantly. This

information indicates that cell division was slowing dramatically when treated with luteolin. Cell
apoptosis percentage in the tested cells increased, meaning that more of the HCC cells were

dying sooner. Scientists watched for the creation of autophagosomes to see how luteolin effects

HCC cells by autophagy. It was found that cells treated with luteolin created more

autophagosomes compared to regular HCC cells. This means that luteolin induces autophagy.

Scientists used various methods like western blotting (to observe apoptosis and autophagy) and

flow cytometry analysis (views the cell cycles and apoptosis) in order to come to their

conclusion. (Cao et al., 2017). In the second article, researchers found that luteolin lowered cell

proliferation in patients with newly found prostate cancer (Han et al., 2016). They also found that

the miR-301 expression is a lower amount because of luteolin. This information may help those

with prostate cancer recover and not get the worse type afterwards (Han et al., 2016). The final

article discovered how luteolin’s antitumor effects work by testing it on mice (Niu et al., 2015).

Two of the genes tested, LFA- 3 and PCNA, must be down regulated while the third gene,

ICAM-1, must be upregulated in order to slow down or even prevent the growth of tumor cells in

hepatoma tissue. This was discovered by quantitative fluorescence RT-PCR, a technique used to

watch for the expression of the three genes tested (Niu et al., 2015).

Compared to traditional ways of fighting cancer, luteolin is much more natural because it

uses normal cellular processes to destroy cancer cells before they can keep dividing. Some

cancers, like prostate cancer in the second article (Han et al., 2016), are not affected by chemo or

radiation, creating a need for a new way of destroying cancer. One drawback to luteolin is that

chemotherapy and radiation therapy have been tested and used on millions of patients, while

luteolin has hardly been used at all. Luteolin was tested on 54 men with prostate cancer in a

specific hospital in the Republic of China, which could cause problems because the lack of
diversity of those tested (Han et al., 2016). However, luteolin does not negatively affect healthy

cells like radiation, which implies that a person who uses luteolin has fewer side effects than

someone going through radiation. For future research, luteolin should be tested on a diverse

group of patients with many types of cancers and at different stages in order to learn how it could

be used in medicine.

Luteolin can attack cancer by inducing cell apoptosis, increasing the amounts of

autophagosomes, and slowing or preventing the growth of tumor cells. However, it has only just

started to be tested on human patients, so using it to cure cancer is still somewhat unknown for

now. Since this is the case, patients should continue to use traditional cancer treatments until

there is more research on luteolin. Have scientists recently tested luteolin on patients? If so, they

should examine which type of cancer it is the most effective on (if any), and which stages of

cancer it is the most successful. Personally, I would try luteolin along with traditional cancer

treatments, if possible, in order to test how it works with my body. If luteolin was making no

progress, the other methods would fight the cancer instead. In my opinion, alternative methods of

curing cancer should be an option when dealing with this disease. However, there needs to be

more research about how luteolin affects patients with cancer. Are there and side effects of

luteolin? Talking to your doctor first is the smartest decision when finding cancer treatments. As

technology advances, more powerful techniques are successfully defeating cancer, and even

preventing it from showing up. Luteolin could possibly be a new and successful method of

fighting cancer in the future.

 References:

American Cancer Society. (2016, Feb. 16). How is chemotherapy used to treat cancer?.

Retrieved from

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/treatment-types/chemother

apy/how-is-chemotherapy-used-to-treat-cancer.html

Cancer. (2017, July 19). Radiation therapy. Retrieved from

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/radiation-therapy

Cao, Z., Zhang, H., Cai, X., Fang, W., Chai, D., Wen, Y., ... & Zhang, Y. (2017). Luteolin

promotes cell apoptosis by inducing autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma. ​Cellular

Physiology and Biochemistry​, ​43​(5), 1803-1812. Doi: ​https://doi.org/10.1159/000484066

Han K., Meng W., Zhang JJ., Zhou Y., Wang YL., Su Y., ... Min DL. (2016). Luteolin inhibited

proliferation and induced apoptosis of prostate cancer cells through miR-301. ​Onco

Targets and Therapy, 9, ​3085-3094. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S102862

IQWiG. (2016, Jan. 14). How does chemotherapy work?. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072611/

Niu J. X., Guo H. P., Gan H. M., Bao L. D., & Ren J. J. (2015). Effect of luteolin on gene

expression in mouse H22 hepatoma cells. ​Genetics and molecular research: GMR​, ​14​(4),

14448-14456. doi: 10.4238/2015.November.18.7.