Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2020; 26(14): 1601-1612
Published online Apr 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i14.1601
Silymarin, boswellic acid and curcumin enriched dietetic formulation reduces the growth of inherited intestinal polyps in an animal model
Bruna Girardi, Maria Pricci, Floriana Giorgio, Mariano Piazzolla, Andrea Iannone, Giuseppe Losurdo, Mariabeatrice Principi, Michele Barone, Enzo Ierardi, Alfredo Di Leo
Bruna Girardi, Maria Pricci, Floriana Giorgio, THD SpA, Correggio 42015, Italy
Mariano Piazzolla, Andrea Iannone, Giuseppe Losurdo, Mariabeatrice Principi, Michele Barone, Enzo Ierardi, Alfredo Di Leo, Gastroenterology Section, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari, Bari 70124, Italy
Author contributions: Di Leo A, Ierardi E and Barone M planned the study; Girardi B, Pricci M, Giorgio F, Piazzolla M took care of mice; Girardi B, Pricci M, Giorgio F, Piazzolla M, Losurdo G, Iannone A collected the data; Girardi B, Pricci M, Giorgio F, Piazzolla M performed experimental analysis; Ierardi E and Girardi B performed histological analysis; Iannone A and Losurdo G performed statistical analysis; Girardi B and Ierardi E wrote the paper; All Authors read and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the University of Bari Ethics committee (protocol number 6/12).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The study protocol was approved by the University of Bari Committee for Animal Experimentation (protocol number 6/12).
Conflict-of-interest statement: Alfredo Di Leo is an advisory board member of THD S.p.a. Floriana Giorgio, Bruna Girardi and Maria Pricci are employees of THD S.p.a. All the other authors declare no financial support or conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alfredo Di Leo, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Section of Gastroenterology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari 70124, Italy. alfredo.dileo@uniba.it
Received: December 7, 2019
Peer-review started: December 7, 2019
First decision: December 30, 2019
Revised: March 6, 2020
Accepted: March 27, 2020
Article in press: March 27, 2020
Published online: April 14, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Some natural products derived from plants may have anti-carcinogenetic effect.

Research motivation

We looked for possible candidate molecules to arrest the development of intestinal cancer in an animal model.

Research objectives

To test a combination of phytochemicals in a mouse model of genetic intestinal carcinogenesis.

Research methods

A combination of silymarin, boswellic acid and curcumin was given to forty adenomatous polyposis coli multiple intestinal neoplasia. Markers of proliferation/apoptosis were examined.

Research results

Compared to standard, enriched diet reduced the total number of polypoid lesions. In enriched diet group a reduction in polyp size was observed. Areas of low-grade dysplasia and intestinal carcinoma were significantly decreased in enriched diet group. Enriched diet showed a faster epithelial migration and an increased apoptosis in normal mucosa and low-grade dysplasia areas. Estrogen receptor beta protein was well expressed in normal mucosa of enriched and standard groups, with a more marked trend associated to the first one. Estrogen receptor alpha was similarly expressed in normal and polypoid mucosa of standard and enriched diet group. Cleaved caspase 3 showed in normal mucosa a stronger signal in enriched than in standard diet. Cyclin D1 was more expressed in standard than enriched diet group of both normal and polypoid tissue.

Research conclusions

Our results are suggestive of a chemo-preventive synergic effect of silymarin, boswellic acid and curcumin in inherited intestinal cancer.

Research perspectives

The dietetic formulation may be promising for patients with a genetic predisposition to develop intestinal polyps and carcinomas.