called thunder god vine, or lei gong teng, as a therapy for a host of health
problems including rheumatoid arthritis. Now, in a new report just published in
the journal Nature Chemical Biology, scientists from the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine have revealed there is solid evidence the plant (known by the
botanical name Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F) has potential anti-tumor
and other healing properties — and they think they now know how it works.
Thunder god vine (lei gong teng) contains compounds that help control the
“machinery” of genes on the cellular level.
“Extracts of this medicinal
plant have been used to treat a whole host of conditions and have been highly
lauded for anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, contraceptive and anti-tumor
activities,” Jun O. Liu, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology and molecular
sciences at Johns Hopkins, said in a media statement. “We’ve known about the
active compound, triptolide, and that it stops cell growth, since 1972, but only
now have we figured out what it does.”
In animal studies, triptolide, the
active ingredient purified from thunder god vine, has been found to be effective
against arthritis and even skin graft rejection. Incredibly, according to
Dr. Liu, triptolide also has been shown to block the growth of all 60 U.S.
National Cancer Institute cancer cell lines at very low doses, and even causes
some of those cell lines to die. Other research has provided evidence
triptolide interferes with proteins known to activate genes and Dr. Liu and his
research team are now focusing on this area in their studies.
So far, the
scientists have systematically tested triptolide’s impact on different proteins
involved with gene control by looking at how much new DNA, RNA and protein is
produced in cells. They found that triptolide has a general ability to stop RNA
polymerase II (RNAP II) activity, which plays a complex role in transcribing
DNA. Bottom line: Dr. Liu revealed this impact on RNAP II could explain
triptolide’s anti-inflammatory effects as well as its potential to treat
cancer.
“And its behavior has important additional implications for
circumventing the resistance that some cancer cells develop to certain
anticancer drugs,” Dr. Liu added in a statement to the media. “We’re eager to
study it further to see what it can do for future cancer
therapy.”
[Editor`s Note: NaturalNews is strongly against the use of all
forms of animal testing. We fully support implementation of humane medical
experimentation that promotes the health and wellbeing of all living
creatures.]
For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/…
About the author
Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work
has appeared in Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Yoga
Journal, Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI,
UCLA’s “Healthy Years” newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s “Focus on
Health Aging” newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic’s “Men’s Health Advisor”
newsletter and many others
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031816_Chinese_medicine_cancer.html#ixzz1LZzQb0yL