Anti-cancer Effects of Phyllanthus urinaria and Relevant Mechanisms

Phyllanthus urinaria (P. urinaria), a widely used herbalmedicine, has been reported to possess various biologicalactivities. This report aimed to characterize the whole P. urinariaplant, present the anticancer effects of P. urinaria both invivo and in vitro, and explore relevant mechanisms. The waterextract of P. urinaria not only significantly reduces the cellviability of various cancer cell lines from different origins butalso suppresses tumor development in C57BL/6J mice afterimplantation of Lewis lung carcinoma (LCC) cells. The anticanceractivity of P. urinaria extract is mainly due to inducedapoptosis of cancer cells as demonstrated by DNA fragmentationand increased caspase-3 activity through both intrinsic andextrinsic pathways. The decrease in viability with P. urinariatreatment might be partially associated with down-regulationof telomerase activation and induction of the apoptotic process.In addition, P. urinaria also exhibits anti-angiogenic activity that is mediated, at least in part,by suppression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) secretion and inhibition of MMP-2activity through zinc chelation.