jaundice

Herb Can Help Avoid Drug Resistance in Treating Lung Cancer: New Study

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Lung cancer ranks as the No.1 killer of all cancers globally. (Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock)

Lung cancer ranks as the No.1 killer of all cancers globally.

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Lung cancer ranks as the No.1 killer of all cancers globally. The main treatment method of Western medicine for non-small cell lung cancer, the most common type of lung cancer, is targeted therapy.

However, a thorny problem with targeted therapy is the development of drug resistance in patients.

Lee Mi-hyun, a pre-Korean medicine professor at Dongshin University in South Korea, announced on Nov. 14 that the extract of a herb “costustoot” could solve the problem of patients’ resistance to the targeted drug Osimertinib.

Lung cancer can be pathologically divided into small lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). More than 80 percent of lung cancer patients have non-small cell lung cancer, and about 50 percent of non-small cell lung cancers have mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

In treating the gene mutation, if the patient is injected with the targeted anti-cancer agent Osimertinib for a long period of time, the body will develop resistance to the drug, reducing the effectiveness of the treatment.

Osimertinib is a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor (EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors, EGFR-TKIs), a targeted drug.

It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the European Union in 2017 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and by the China Food and Drug Administration in 2018 for the treatment of advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Epoch Times Photo
A study shows that the extract of the herb “costustoot” could solve the problem of patients’ resistance to the targeted drug Osimertinib.

Lee found that this resistance is due to the over presence of MEK and AKT proteins that affect cancer cell proliferation and survival.

Based on this, Lee confirmed that costunolide, extracted from the roots of costustoot, was able to target MEK and AKT proteins, effectively blocking cancer appreciation and inducing death in oxitinib-resistant cells and animal models.

From the perspective of Korean medicine (traditional Chinese medicine), costustoot is mainly used to treat thoracic or epigastric abdominal distension, jaundice, lack of appetite, diarrhea, tenesmus, and food stagnation.

Modern pharmacological studies have shown that costustoot has the functions of protecting gastric mucosa, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, regulating gastrointestinal motility, improving gallbladder, inhibiting pathogenic microorganisms, and anti-tumor.

“We are conducting various studies to solve the problem of drug resistance in the treatment of lung cancer by Western medicine, and we will try to make these studies an opportunity for the development of Korean medicine,” Lee said.

Smartphone app that detects jaundice in newborns within minutes

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Researchers have developed a smartphone app that checks for jaundice in newborns and can deliver results to parents and pediatricians within minutes. Jaundice is a common condition in babies less than a week old. Skin that turns yellow can be a sure sign that a newborn is jaundiced and isn’t adequately eliminating the chemical bilirubin. However, that discolouration is sometimes hard to see,and severe jaundice left untreated can harm a baby.

The smartphone app can serve as a screening tool to determine whether a baby needs a blood test

The new app, developed by the University of Washington engineers and physicians, could serve as a screening tool to determine whether a baby needs a blood test – the gold standard for detecting high levels of bilirubin. “Virtually every baby gets jaundiced, and we’re sending them home from the hospital even before bilirubin levels reach their peak,” said James Taylor, a UW professor of pediatrics and medical director of the newborn nursery at UW Medical Center.

“This smartphone test is really for babies in the first few days after they go home. A parent or health care provider can get an accurate picture of bilirubin to bridge the gap after leaving the hospital,” Taylor said. The app, called BiliCam, uses a smartphone’s camera and flash and a colour calibration card.

A parent or health care professional needs to download the app, place the card on her baby’s belly, and then take a picture with the card in view. The card calibrates and accounts for different lighting conditions and skin tones. Data from the photo are sent to the cloud and are analysed by machine-learning algorithms, and a report on the newborn’s bilirubin levels is sent almost instantly to the parent’s phone.

“This is a way to provide peace of mind for the parents of newborns,” said Shwetak Patel, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering and of electrical engineering. A noninvasive jaundice screening tool is available in some hospitals, but the instrument costs several thousand dollars and isn’t feasible for home use, researchers said.

Currently, both doctors and parents assess jaundice by looking for the yellow colour in a newborn’s skin, but this visual assessment is only moderately accurate. The UW team developed BiliCam to be easy to use and affordable for both clinicians and parents, especially during the first several days after birth when it’s crucial to check for jaundice.

The team ran a clinical study with 100 newborns and their families at UW Medical Center. They used a blood test, the current screening tool used in hospitals, and BiliCam to test the babies when they were between two and five days old. They found that BiliCam performed as well as or better than the current screening tool. Though it wouldn’t replace a blood test, BiliCam could let parents know if they should take that next step, researchers said.