Byline: Xin. Zhao, Rui. Wang, Yu. Qian, Guijie. Li, Yalin. Zhou, Peng. Sun

Background: Insect tea is a particular drink or health product in China and it is also used as Chinese medicine now. Its functional effects need to be proved. Materials and Methods: The ICR mice buccal mucosa cancer model was established by injecting the mice with U14 cells and mice was treated with insect tea. Tumor volumes and lymph node metastasis rates were determined. And the buccal mucosa tissues and cancer cervical lymph node were also checked by histology test, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blot assays. Results: The tumor volumes for the group treated with insect tea mice was smaller than those from the control mice. The sections of buccal mucosa cancer tissue showed that the canceration of insect tea mice was weaker than control mice. Insect tea significantly induced apoptosis in buccal mucosa tissues by upregulating Bax, caspases, and downregulating Bcl-2. Nuclear factor-?B, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and COX-2 gene, was significantly downregulated by insect tea, demonstrating its anti-inflammatory properties. Insect tea also exerted a great anti-metastasis effect on tissues as demonstrated by decreased expression of Matrix metalloproteinases genes and increased expression of tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases. Conclusion: The highest concentration of 1600 mg/kg oral gavage and 400 mg/mL smear insect tea showed the best anticancer effects. Based on the results, insect tea showed the strong in vivo buccal mucosa cancer preventive effects.

INTRODUCTION

Insect tea is the only one of the best natural organic tea, which set the essence of animals and plants in. As early as the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), there are records about the effect of nutrition and health care. [sup][1] Local residents put wild rattan and leaves of Kudingcha (Ilex Kuding tea C.J. Tseng), vine tea ( Ampelopsis megalophylla Diels et Gilg), dyetree ( Platycarya strobilacea Sieb. et Zucc.) and toringo ( Malus sieboldii [Regel] Rehd.) together to lure larvae's of Hydrillodes morosa Butler; Nodaria niphona Butler; Aglossa dimidiata Haworth; Herculia glaucinalis L. and Fujimacia bicoloralis leech to eat them, leaving the droppings there. People take residue of these rattan and tea leaves out of droppings, which is highly named as dragon ball. They fry it in oven and the insect droppings tea is ready for drinking. [sup][2]

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a type of cancer that usually develops on the squamous or epithelial cells that cover the lips and the oral cavity. The malignant or cancerous cells are usually found on the floor of the mouth or on the surface of the tongue. [sup][3] The squamous cells carcinoma is the main part of the epidermis of the skin, and this cancer is one of the major forms of skin cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common cancer of the skin. [sup][4] The U14 mouse tumor is a squamous cell carcinoma. It was an ectopically induced carcinoma by treating the uterine cervix with 20-methylcholanthrene. [sup][5] U14 cells are widely used in studies of tumor invasion, metastasis, recurrence...