Protective immune mechanisms of Yifei Tongluo, a Chinese herb formulation, in the treatment of mycobacterial infection

Abstract

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.

Infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Promotes Both M1/M2 Polarization and MMP Production in Cigarette Smoke-Exposed Macrophages

“…Procedures for establishment of the mouse model were approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking University Third Hospital and followed the committee's animal care and use guidelines. Intranasal methods of CSE exposure or BCG infection were used ( 26 , 27 ). Briefly, 6–8 weeks old, female, C57BL/6 mice (specific-pathogen-free) were purchased from Beijing Vital River Laboratory.…”

Yifei Tongluo, a Chinese Herbal Formula, Suppresses Tumor Growth and Metastasis and Exerts Immunomodulatory Effect in Lewis Lung Carcinoma Mice

“…There are more and more clinical studies show that the combination TCM with vinorelbine has a synergistic antitumor effect, which can improve quality of life and immunity of patients, bone marrow suppression, and so on [ 57 ]. YFTL contains multiple herbs for balance of Yin and Yang, a system of two opposites but complementary aspects of nature to maintain immune homeostasis [ 58 ]. Therefore, it is promising to combine YFTL with the chemotherapy drugs to reduce side effects and improve efficacy.…”

A Multicomponent Vaccine Provides Immunity against Local and Systemic Infections by Group A Streptococcus across Serotypes

“…GAS- and antigen-specific antibodies were measured by ELISA as previously described (44). Plates were coated with 3 × 10 7 /ml of heat-killed (HK) GAS M1 serotype (strain 90-226) or 5 μg/ml of single recombinant antigen in PBS and incubated overnight at 4°C.…”

“…HRP-conjugated goat anti-human IgG was used for detection of human serum IgG. IL-17A levels in the supernatants of NALT homogenate were measured using ELISA kits (eBioscience, USA) as previously described (44).…”