Protective immune mechanisms of Yifei Tongluo, a Chinese herb formulation, in the treatment of mycobacterial infection.
Xin FanNing LiXiaoshuang WangJingyu ZhangMeiyi XuXueting LiuBeinan WangPublished in: PloS one (2018)
Yifei Tongluo (YFTL) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulation which has been shown clinical efficacy in treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China. However, the underlying mechanisms of the effects of YFTL are lacking. This study investigated the effects of YFTL on immune regulation with a mouse lung infection model with Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). We found that compared with untreated mice, the lung mycobacterial load in YFTL-treated mice was significantly reduced, accompanied by alleviated pulmonary inflammation with reduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines and increase of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Flow cytometry analyses showed that Th1 cells were significantly higher in the lungs of YFTL-treated mice at early infection time. The results suggest that YFTL-treatment down-regulates pulmonary inflammation, which facilitates a rapid infiltration of Th1 cells into the lungs. Moreover, the Th1 cells in the lungs were resolved faster at later time concomitant with increased the regulatory T cells (Tregs). The reduction of mycobacterial burden associated with improved tissue pathology, faster Th1 cell trafficking, and accelerated resolution of Th1 cells in the lungs of YFTL-treated mice indicates that YFTL improves mycobacterial clearance by maintaining lung homeostasis and dynamically regulating T cells in the lung parenchyma, and suggests that YFTL can be used as host-directed therapies that target immune responses to mycobacterial infection.
Keyphrases
- induced apoptosis
- mycobacterium tuberculosis
- cell cycle arrest
- regulatory t cells
- oxidative stress
- multidrug resistant
- immune response
- high fat diet induced
- drug delivery
- stem cells
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- signaling pathway
- drug resistant
- metabolic syndrome
- cell proliferation
- combination therapy
- mass spectrometry
- skeletal muscle
- wild type
- high resolution
- human immunodeficiency virus
- atomic force microscopy