Low piperine fractional piper nigrum extract enhanced the antitumor immunity. - GreenMedInfo Summary

Cancer is one of the major causes of death worldwide. In addition to standard regimens, tumor suppression ability has been demonstrated in many types of natural products, including, or black pepper. In previous reports, we demonstrated the antitumor effect of low piperine fractionalextractand. However, the effects of low piperine fractionalextract in the aspect of antitumor immunity has not yet been investigated. In this study, tumor-bearing rats were fed with 100 mg/kg BW or 200 mg/kg BW of low piperine fractionalextract 3 times per week for 4 weeks. Tumor burden and hematological data were then evaluated. Immunological data was investigated using a cytokine array and flow cytometry. The results showed that both doses of low piperine fractionalextract significantly suppressed tumor progression in N-nitrosomethylurea-induced mammary tumor rats. There were no significant changes observed in the total white blood cells, red blood cells, and hemoglobin. Low piperine fractionalextract suppressed some cytokine and chemokine levels including CXCL7, sICAM-1, and L-selectin 0.2- to 0.6-fold. Interestingly, 200 mg/kg BW of low piperine fractionalextract significantly promoted type 1 T helper cell, and suppressed neutrophil, basophil, type 2 T helper cell, and regulatory T cell compared to the control group. In summary, these results indicate that low piperine fractionalextract had a high efficacy in supporting antitumor activity at immunological levels via regulating Th1/Th2/Treg cells.