Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2010 Sep 3;5(9):e12561. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012561.
Many hundreds of botanicals are used in complementary and alternative medicine for therapeutic use as antimicrobials and immune stimulators. While there exists many centuries of anecdotal evidence and few clinical studies on the activity and efficacy of these botanicals, limited scientific evidence exists on the ability of these botanicals to modulate the immune and inflammatory responses. Using botanogenomics (or herbogenomics), this study provides novel insight into inflammatory genes which are induced in peripheral blood mononuclear cells following treatment with immunomodulatory botanical extracts. These results may suggest putative genes involved in the physiological responses thought to occur following administration of these botanical extracts. Using extracts from immunostimulatory herbs (Astragalus membranaceus, Sambucus cerulea, Andrographis paniculata) and an immunosuppressive herb (Urtica dioica), the data presented supports previous cytokine studies on these herbs as well as identifying additional genes which may be involved in immune cell activation and migration and various inflammatory responses, including wound healing, angiogenesis, and blood pressure modulation. Additionally, we report the presence of lipopolysaccharide in medicinally prepared extracts of these herbs which is theorized to be a natural and active component of the immunostimulatory herbal extracts. The data presented provides a more extensive picture on how these herbs may be mediating their biological effects on the immune and inflammatory responses.
数百种植物药被用于补充和替代医学中，作为抗菌和免疫刺激剂。虽然这些植物药在活性和功效方面有几个世纪的轶事证据和少数临床研究，但关于这些植物药调节免疫和炎症反应的能力，科学证据有限。本研究利用植物基因组学（或草药基因组学），为外周血单个核细胞在接受免疫调节植物提取物治疗后诱导的炎症基因提供了新的见解。这些结果可能表明，在给予这些植物提取物后，与生理反应有关的假定基因参与其中。本研究使用免疫刺激草药（黄芪、接骨木、穿心莲）和免疫抑制草药（荨麻）的提取物，所提供的数据不仅支持了之前关于这些草药的细胞因子研究，还确定了其他可能参与免疫细胞激活和迁移以及各种炎症反应的基因，包括伤口愈合、血管生成和血压调节。此外，我们还报告了这些草药的药用提取物中存在内毒素，内毒素被认为是免疫刺激草药提取物的天然和活性成分。所呈现的数据提供了一个更广泛的图景，说明这些草药如何介导其对免疫和炎症反应的生物学作用。
