Center of Experimental Medicine, Wuhan First Hospital, Wuhan, P R China.
Planta Med. 2010 Jan;76(1):76-8. doi: 10.1055/s-0029-1185943. Epub 2009 Jul 27.
Baicalin has emerged as a promising agent for the therapy of infectious diseases due to the increasing number of pathogenic microbial strains resistant to several antibiotics. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory activity of baicalin on Chlamydia infection in vitro. We found that baicalin blocked the infection of HeLa cells in vitro when added to the infected cells. In order to shed light on the inhibitory effects of baicalin on the Chlamydia-infected cells, the expression of RFX5 and Chlamydia protease-like activity factor (CPAF) mRNAs and proteins in the Chlamydia-infected cells were examined using Western blot and real-time RT-PCR analysis. The results demonstrated that RFX5 and CPAF were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, by baicalin. Because CPAF is responsible for degrading RFX5, it is suggested that CPAF is a primary target of baicalin and plays an important role in downregulating RFX5. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that baicalin can effectively inhibit Chlamydia Trachomatis in HeLa cells and therefore can be considered a potential agent for the therapy of infectious diseases caused by C. trachomatis.
黄芩素由于越来越多的致病菌对几种抗生素产生耐药性，已成为治疗感染性疾病的一种有前途的药物。在本研究中，我们研究了黄芩素对沙眼衣原体感染的体外抑制活性。我们发现，黄芩素在感染细胞时加入到感染细胞中，可阻断 HeLa 细胞的感染。为了阐明黄芩素对感染沙眼衣原体的细胞的抑制作用，我们使用 Western blot 和实时 RT-PCR 分析检测了感染细胞中 RFX5 和沙眼衣原体蛋白酶样活性因子（CPAF）mRNA 和蛋白质的表达。结果表明，黄芩素分别上调和下调了 RFX5 和 CPAF。由于 CPAF 负责降解 RFX5，因此推测 CPAF 是黄芩素的主要靶标，并在下调 RFX5 中发挥重要作用。总之，我们的研究结果表明，黄芩素能有效抑制 HeLa 细胞中的沙眼衣原体，因此可被视为治疗沙眼衣原体引起的感染性疾病的潜在药物。
