Immunoregulatory Cordyceps sinensis increases regulatory T cells to Th17 cell ratio and delays diabetes in NOD mice

Th17 cell-Mediated Responses in Type 1 Diabetes Pathogenesis

“…The plasticity of Th17 cells was recently highlighted in vivo in mouse models of ocular inflammation, colitis, or diabetes showing that after adoptive transfer of Th17 cells, these cells converted rapidly into IFN-γ-producing cells that were critical for disease development [54,56,57,65,66]. Th17 cells only induced diabetes efficiently after conversion into IFN-γ-producing cells in lymphopenic hosts [53,55,56]. However, the transference of Th17 cells in immunocompetent animals should be done to evaluate the possible convertion of the transferred cells into Th1 phenotype and the capacity in inducing diabetes in the presence of an intact immune system.…”

“…Moreover, diabetic NOD mice exhibited higher Th17/Treg ratio when compared with nondiabetic NOD mice, suggesting that the onset of T1D is associated with the imbalance of the Th17/Treg axis during disease progression. Additionally, the oral treatment of NOD mice with Cordyceps sinensis, a fungus with immunoregulatory properties, promoted a delay in T1D development, decreasing the ratio of Th17 cells to Treg cells [53]. A more recent report published by Wan et al showed that Th17 cells were unable to undergo Th1 conversion upon transfer into NOD mice, requiring the Treg cell depletion to transfer the disease [54].…”

A new approach for treatment of type 1 diabetes: Phytotherapy and phytopharmacology of regulatory T cells

“…Orally-administered C. sinensis can reduce the overall incidence of diabetes which is due to an increase in the portion of Treg cells/Th17 in the spleen and pancreatic lymph nodes. In sum, these data imply that C. sinensis contributes to the inhibition of diabetes becuase it is able to modulate Treg to Th17 cell ratio in vivo (30). When non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice are treated with C. sinensis extract, the disease development slows down.…”

Autoimmunity and Immunotherapy of Type 1 Diabetes

“…The discovery of factors involved in the differentiation of Th17 and Treg cells suggests the existence of Treg/Th17 balance, controlled by IL-6 (Kimura et al, 2011). More recently, increased Th17 immune responses or imbalance of nTreg cells and IL-17 producing Th17 have been found to be associated to the onset of the disease in both humans and NOD mice or Diabetes-prone BioBreeding (DP-BB) rats (Honkanen et al, 2010;Shi et al, 2009;van den Brandt et al, 2010). While, these observations should be confirmed further.…”