The effect of SIM5 on bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells of multiple myeloma patients

Cancers are among the serious problems in communities. In recent years, herbal products have been very promising regarding their anti-tumor and immunomodulatin potentials. SIM5, a herbal preparation, has had good results in discriminating between cancerous cell lines and normal cells, but have not examined directly on patients cells yet. In this study, bone marrow mononuclear cells from cancerous and non-cancerous samples were used to study the effects of SIM5.
Remained bone marrow samples of multiple myeloma patients (7 cases) and individuals who clinically needed bone marrow examination, but finally were diagnosed with no serious pathologic conditions in their leukocytes (7 cases) were considered as control group. Mononuclear cells were isolated and cultured with SIM5 and R10 fraction. After 48 h incubation, toxicity was assessed using LDH release test and vital activity with MTT test.
Cell toxicity with SIM5 was observed only in multiple myeloma samples and not in control group samples. There was a strong correlation between toxicity and the number of plasma cells in bone marrow mononuclear cells. SIM5 induced a decrease in vital activity of cancerous cells but an increase in the normal bone marrow samples.
SIM5 has distinct effects on normal and cancerous cells, and its toxic effect is focused on the latter. Therefore, it possesses the properties of an ideal product to be studied more seriously.