scholarly journals High-Throughput Immunological Analysis of Dictamni Cortex: Implication in the Quality Control of Herbal Medicine

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (16) ◽  
pp. 2880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Sin-Man Tsang ◽  
Pang-Chui Shaw ◽  
Ida Miu-Ting Chu ◽  
Ling Cheng ◽  
Eric Chun-Wai Wong ◽  
...  

Quality inconsistency of herbal medicine is an obstacle that limits the extensive use and study of traditional Chinese medicine. Differences in environmental conditions and processing methods of herbal medicine often result in varying clinical outcomes in patients. Standard chemical markers used for the quality control (QC) of herbal medicine are usually the most abundant and characteristic components, which may not be therapeutically relevant or cannot comprehensively reflect the biological quality of the herbs. In view of this, a novel QC method for better assessment of herbal medicine has been developed via bioactivities analysis. Immunological activities of Dictamni Cortex, a typical herbal medicine for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases, from different geographical locations in China, were evaluated. Upon in vitro treatment of their water and ethanol extracts, distinct patterns of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-6, IL-12p70, IL-1β, and chemokine CXCL8 were released from the lipopolysaccharides- and/or phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Thus, in addition to the commonly used morphological, chemical, or DNA markers, the novel high-throughput profiling of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines of PBMC upon treatment with herbal extracts could be an important reference to help for the quality control of herbal medicine in the future.

2007 ◽  
Vol 85 (7) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriy Lissitsyn ◽  
Allan B. Becker ◽  
Anita L. Kozyrskyj ◽  
Kent T. HayGlass

Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists, ubiquitously present in the environment, are key players in activating synthesis of cytokines and chemokines that control normal and pathophysiological processes, including multiple inflammatory diseases. TLR2 and TLR4 respond to bacterial cell wall products. We examined the impact of TLR activation on human immune capacity using stimuli ranging from the low levels seen in most environments to the high concentrations widely used for in vitro studies. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 117 healthy children were activated with lipopolysaccharide (TLR4 ligand) or peptidoglycan (TLR2 ligand) over a million-fold range of concentrations. Resulting interleukin-6, CCL2, and CCL22 production were quantified by ELISA. The intensity of cytokine production elicited was linearly related to the intensity of the stimulus up to maximal responses. In marked contrast, chemokine production was not linearly related to agonist concentration. Responses rose with increasing stimulation, and then were markedly reduced (40%–100%, p < 0.0001) in response to the high levels of TLR stimulation most commonly cited. Thus, the levels of TLR4 and TLR2 agonists typically used for in vitro interrogation of immune capacity yield results clearly distinct from those obtained using commonly occurring environmental levels of TLR ligands. These findings demonstrate the importance of utilizing TLR ligands at concentrations more closely mimicking environmental levels when assessing immune capacity.


2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 4507-4519 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. T. Ranjith-Kumar ◽  
K. E. Duffy ◽  
J. L. Jordan ◽  
A. Eaton-Bassiri ◽  
Robert Vaughan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) can signal the production of a suite of cytokines and chemokines in response to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) ligands or the dsRNA mimic poly(I-C). Using a human embryonic kidney 293T cell line to express human TLR3, we determined that poly(I-C)-induced signal could be significantly inhibited by single-stranded DNAs (ssDNAs), but not ssRNA or dsDNA. The ssDNA molecules that down-modulated TLR3 signaling did not affect TLR4 and do not require the hypomethylated CpG motif found in TLR9 ligands. The degree of modulation can be altered by the length, base sequence, and modification state of the ssDNAs. An inhibitory ssDNA was found to colocalize with TLR3 in transfected cells and in a cell line that naturally expresses TLR3. The inhibitory ssDNAs can compete efficiently with dsRNA for binding purified TLR3 ectodomains in vitro, while noninhibitory nucleic acids do not. The ssDNAs also decrease the levels of several cytokines produced by the human bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B and by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in response to poly(I-C) stimulation of native TLR3. These activities indicate that ssDNAs could be used to regulate the inflammatory response through TLR3.


Blood ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 83 (9) ◽  
pp. 2516-2525 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Meszaros ◽  
S Aberle ◽  
R Dedrick ◽  
R Machovich ◽  
A Horwitz ◽  
...  

Abstract Mononuclear phagocytes, stimulated by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), have been implicated in the activation of coagulation in sepsis and endotoxemia. In monocytes LPS induces the synthesis of tissue factor (TF) which, assembled with factor VII, initiates the blood coagulation cascades. In this study we investigated the mechanism of LPS recognition by monocytes, and the consequent expression of TF mRNA and TF activity. We also studied the inhibition of these effects of LPS by rBPI23, a 23-kD recombinant fragment of bactericidal/permeability increasing protein, which has been shown to antagonize LPS in vitro and in vivo. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, or monocytes isolated by adherence, were stimulated with Escherichia coli O113 LPS at physiologically relevant concentrations (&gt; or = 10 pg/mL). The effect of LPS was dependent on the presence of the serum protein LBP (lipopolysaccharide-binding protein), as shown by the potentiating effect of human recombinant LBP or serum. Furthermore, recognition of low amounts of LPS by monocytes was also dependent on CD14 receptors, because monoclonal antibodies against CD14 greatly reduced the LPS sensitivity of monocytes in the presence of serum or rLBP. Induction of TF activity and mRNA expression by LPS were inhibited by rBPI23. The expression of tumor necrosis factor showed qualitatively similar changes. Considering the involvement of LPS-induced TF in the potentially lethal intravascular coagulation in sepsis, inhibition of TF induction by rBPI23 may be of therapeutic benefit.


2012 ◽  
Vol 209 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Jöckel ◽  
Gernot Nees ◽  
Romy Sommer ◽  
Yang Zhao ◽  
Dmitry Cherkasov ◽  
...  

Foreign RNA serves as pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) and is a potent immune stimulator for innate immune receptors. However, the role of single bacterial RNA species in immune activation has not been characterized in detail. We analyzed the immunostimulatory potential of transfer RNA (tRNA) from different bacteria. Interestingly, bacterial tRNA induced type I interferon (IFN) and inflammatory cytokines in mouse dendritic cells (DCs) and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Cytokine production was TLR7 dependent because TLR7-deficient mouse DCs did not respond and TLR7 inhibitory oligonucleotides inhibited tRNA-mediated activation. However, not all bacterial tRNA induced IFN-α because tRNA from Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 and Thermus thermophilus were non-immunostimulatory. Of note, tRNA from an E. coli knockout strain for tRNA (Gm18)-2′-O-methyltransferase (trmH) regained immunostimulatory potential. Additionally, in vitro methylation of this immunostimulatory Gm18-negative tRNA with recombinant trmH from T. thermophilus abolished its IFN-α inducing potential. More importantly, Gm18-modified tRNA acted as TLR7 antagonist and blocked IFN-α induction of influenza A virus–infected PBMCs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. e001762
Author(s):  
Punit Upadhyaya ◽  
Johanna Lahdenranta ◽  
Kristen Hurov ◽  
Sailaja Battula ◽  
Rachel Dods ◽  
...  

BackgroundIn contrast to immune checkpoint inhibitors, the use of antibodies as agonists of immune costimulatory receptors as cancer therapeutics has largely failed. We sought to address this problem using a new class of modular synthetic drugs, termed tumor-targeted immune cell agonists (TICAs), based on constrained bicyclic peptides (Bicycles).MethodsPhage libraries displaying Bicycles were panned for binders against tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily receptors CD137 and OX40, and tumor antigens EphA2, Nectin-4 and programmed death ligand 1. The CD137 and OX40 Bicycles were chemically conjugated to tumor antigen Bicycles with different linkers and stoichiometric ratios of binders to obtain a library of low molecular weight TICAs (MW <8 kDa). The TICAs were evaluated in a suite of in vitro and in vivo assays to characterize their pharmacology and mechanism of action.ResultsLinking Bicycles against costimulatory receptors (e.g., CD137) to Bicycles against tumor antigens (e.g., EphA2) created potent agonists that activated the receptors selectively in the presence of tumor cells expressing these antigens. An EphA2/CD137 TICA (BCY12491) efficiently costimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro in the presence of EphA2 expressing tumor cell lines as measured by the increased secretion of interferon γ and interleukin-2. Treatment of C57/Bl6 mice transgenic for the human CD137 extracellular domain (huCD137) bearing EphA2-expressing MC38 tumors with BCY12491 resulted in the infiltration of CD8+ T cells, elimination of tumors and generation of immunological memory. BCY12491 was cleared quickly from the circulation (plasma t1/2 in mice of 1–2 hr), yet intermittent dosing proved effective.ConclusionTumor target-dependent CD137 agonism using a novel chemical approach (TICAs) afforded elimination of tumors with only intermittent dosing suggesting potential for a wide therapeutic index in humans. This work unlocks a new path to effective cancer immunotherapy via agonism of TNF superfamily receptors.


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