Treatment Effects of a Glucoside- and Rutinoside-rich Crude Material in Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy and Related Symptoms

Cancer is at least partially attributable to immunological disturbance, and its treatment causes additional inflammatory problems. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), especially that induced by oxaliplatin or Taxanes (including paclitaxel and docetaxel) is common among cancer patients during or after the treatment of chemotherapeutic agents, presented as pain and sensory abnormalities for months, and even persists for years in some patients after the cessation of chemotherapy. Even worse is that currently available drugs cannot effectively manage these conditions. Besides, CIPN causes fatigue, anxiety, and depression, which lower patients' quality of life and determination to fight the disease. Interestingly, CIPN is featured by the interference of interleukin (IL) pathways, among which escalation of IL-17 is predominant, suggesting that IL-17 may be manipulated to reduce the inflammation or the immunological disturbance. Cyanidin, a type of glucosides, has been proved to behave like an IL-17 inhibitor and works in an animal model of skin hyperplasia in reducing the IL-17 levels and severity of hyperplasia. We have identified a food material that contains large amounts of glucosides and rutinosides - mulberry juice. Preliminary findings of an ongoing human study of our team have provided statistical evidence that this crude material effectively relieves clinical symptoms of a disorder associated with inflammation features. The current proposal aims to explore the effect of this IL-17 inhibitor-rich material in CIPN and related symptoms. To avoid confounding effects from pain, we plan to divide the potential participants into severe pain and mild pain group to conduct two human studies. A single-blinded randomized controlled design is adopted to compare the effects of this crude material between the experimental group and the control group in (1) pain and CIPN of the severe pain participants and (2) fatigue, anxiety, and depression in the mild pain participants. IL and other immune markers will be tested as evidence of improvement of inflammation status. We expect a decrement in pain, CIPN, fatigue, anxiety, and depression severity with the intake of this IL-17 inhibitor-rich material among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.