Clinical potentials of ginseng polysaccharide for treating gestational diabetes mellitus

Gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM)is the most common glucose metabolism complication or cause of potential impaired glucose tolerance that can occur either before or during pregnancy and lactation.The prevalence of GDM and its related complications in young women is increasing,and this condition may cause serious outcomes and health hazards to the foetus.However,traditional oral hypoglycaemic drugs have potential safety hazards;therefore,it is urgent to develop new,safe,effective,and easily administered agents and remedies.Ginseng polysaccharide(GPS),which is isolated from Panax(P.)ginseng C.A.Meyer,exhibits notably promising biological activities and effects;specifically,it has been shown to lower blood glucose with mild,safe,and nontoxic characteristics,and it can also improve human bodily functions.Hence,we hypothesise that GPS might be used as an additional therapy and candidate agent for treating GDM.This review innovatively summarizes the available reports and evidence from basic studies to analyze the potential for and feasibility of using GPS as a new therapeutic agent for treating GDM.Additionally,for the first time,this review provides a rationale for the use of GPS.Our summarized results show that GPS may be developed as a novel antidiabetic drug and a remedy for use in preventing and treating GDM,with great application prospects.

Clinical Observation on Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Treated with Combined Therapy of Radiotherapy and Ginseng Polysaccharide Injection

To observe the effect of radiotherapy (RT) combined with ginseng polysaccharide (GSP) injection in treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its influence on immune function.Methods: One hundred and thirty-one patients of NPC were randomly divided into two groups, the RT-GSP group (n=64) treated with RT and GSP, and the control group (n=67) treated with conventional radiotherapy, to observe the local cancer remission rate, 1-year total survival rate, no tumor survival rate and no remote metastasis survival rate. Moreover, the changes of T-lymphocyte subsets, natural killer cell (NK) activity and lymphokine-activated killer cell (LAK) activity before and after treatment were determined.Results: Clinical examination conducted 3 months after treatment showed that the complete remission rate in the RT-GSP group was 96.6%, and in the control group 93.3%, the complete remission rate of cervical lymph node metastasis in the two groups was 85.7% and 78.0%, the NPC remission rate shown by CT 60.3% and 51.7%, respectively. Re-examination carried out 1 year after treatment showed that the total survival rate in the two groups was 100% and 96.5%, tumor free survival rate 84.4% and 74.6%, and no remote metastasis survival rate 93.8% and 88.1% respectively. The activity of NK cell and LAK cell as well as T3, T4 value in peripheral blood increased significantly in the RT-GSP group (all P<0.05) after treatment, while with the control group, no significant influence on NK and LAK activities were shown but significant lowering of T3, T4 was, P<0.05. No toxic-adverse reaction of GSP was found.Conclusion: GSP has certain immune function improving effect in NPC patients during RT, and it could also eliminate the occurred adverse reaction to RT and improve the general condition of patients.

Physicochemical properties and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides extracted from Panax ginseng C.A.Meyer with graded percipitation method

Ginseng polysaccharides were extracted by water decoction from Panax ginseng C.A.Meyer(Cultivated Ginseng),named CGPS.Four polysaccharide fractions,CGPS-20,CGPS-40,CGPS-60 and CGPS-80,were precipitated at final ethanol concentrations of 20%,40%,60%and 80%,respectively.Physicochemical properties,molecular weight,monosaccharide composition and antioxidant capacity of polysaccharide fractions were all investigated.The results indicated that changing the concentration of ethanol could precipitate polysaccharides into fractions with different molecular weights,functional group composition and physicochemical properties,eventually leading to differences in antioxidant activity,which would help to find a simple,efficient,and reliable method for rapid extraction and purification of antioxidant polysaccharides from Panax ginseng C.A.Meyer.Among the four polysaccharide fractions,CGPS-80 had lower molecular weight,higher contents of uronic acid and total phenolic,and stronger scavenging ability on DPPH∙and ABTS∙+radicals.