Effect of Korean Mistletoe Lectin on Gene Expression Profile in Human T Lymphocytes: A Microarray Study

Abstract

-Korean mistletoe has a variety of biological effects, such as immunoadjuvant activities. This study investigates the effects of Korean mistletoe lectin (Viscum album L. var. coloratum agglutinin, VCA) on human T lymphocytes to determine whether VCA acts as an immunomodulator. Purified human T-lymphocytes were cultured with VCA and RNA from each point was analyzed using Affymetrix human genome chips containing 22,500 probe sets which represents more than 18,000 transcripts derived from 14,500 human genes. As a result, there was a striking upregulation of genes coding for chemokines. Seventeen genes out of 50 coding for proteins with chemokine activity were upregulated including CXCL9 and IL-8 which are related to the treatment of cancer. In addition, 28 cytokine genes were upregulated including IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, IFN-γ, and TNF-α. Taken together, the data suggest that Korean mistletoe lectin, in parallel with European mistletoe, has an ability to modulate human T cell function.

Development of microsatellite markers for Viscum coloratum (Santalaceae) and their application to wild populations

“…Nakai (Santalaceae), is distributed in many countries, including Korea, Japan, China, and Russia (Qiu and Gilbert, 2003). Viscum L. species have lectins that are known for their potential therapeutic, immunomodulatory, and anticancer properties (Lavastre et al, 2002; Lyu and Park, 2007). According to previous studies, V. coloratum possesses similar cytotoxic and immunological activities as seen in European mistletoe, V. album L. (Lee et al, 2009; Lyu and Park, 2010).…”