Examination of the effects of constituents of traditional Japanese herbal (Kampo) medicines on the migration of plasmacytoid dendritic cells to develop a new therapeutic target

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590879
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General internal medicine (including Psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: University of Toyama
• Principal Investigator: KADOWAKI MAKOTO 富山大学, 和漢医薬学総合研究所, 教授 (20305709)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 樹状細胞 / 遊走 / 漢方薬 / 探索研究 / 創薬研究 / 自己免疫疾患

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The involvement of the plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), but not the conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) in autoimmune diseases have been reported, but there are few reports about the regulation of the migration of pDCs and no drug available with selective inhibitory activity on pDC functions. Therefore, we screened 80 constituents of traditional Japanese (Kampo) formulae which are frequently used in Japan using bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) for inhibitory activities on DC migration. As a result, astragaloside IV, berberine, curcumin, isofraxidin and oxymatrine markedly exerted inhibitory effects on CCL21-stimulated BMpDC migration. Furthermore, oxymatrine and astragaloside IV had no effect on the migration of CXCL12-induced migration of BMcDCs, but berberine, isofraxidin and curcumin inhibited the migration.
However, selective pDC migration inhibitors oxymatrine and astragaloside IV did not ameliorate the symptoms of the spontaneous systemic lupus erythematosus model mice.

Free Research Field

漢方薬理学