Esmaeil Nafiseh, Anaraki Sima Balouchi, Gharagozloo Marjan, Moayedi Behjat
Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2017 Sep;50:194-201. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2017.06.030. Epub 2017 Jun 30.
Silymarin is a flavonoid complex extracted from the Silybum marianum plant. It acts as a strong antioxidant and free radical scavenger by different mechanisms. But in addition to antioxidant effects, silymarin/silybin reveals immunomodulatory affects with both immunostimulatory and immunosuppression activities. Different studies have shown that silymarin has the anti-inflammatory effect through the suppression of NF-κB signaling pathway and TNF-α activation. It also has different immunomodulatory activities in a dose and time-dependent manner. As an immunomodulator agent, silymarin inhibits T-lymphocyte function at low doses while stimulates inflammatory processes at high doses. Studies have shown that silymarin has attenuated autoimmune, allergic, preeclampsia, cancer, and immune-mediated liver diseases and also has suppressed oxidative and nitrosative immunotoxicity. Silymarin also has indicated dual effects on proliferation and apoptosis of different cells. In conclusion, based on the current review, silymarin has a broad spectrum of immunomodulatory functions under different conditions. Recognizing the exact mechanisms of silymarin on cellular and molecular pathways would be very valuable for treatment of immune-mediated diseases. Also further studies are needed to assess the utility of silymarin in protection against autoimmune, cancer, allergic and other diseases in human subjects.
水飞蓟素是从水飞蓟植物中提取的一种类黄酮复合物。它通过不同机制发挥强大的抗氧化剂和自由基清除剂的作用。但除抗氧化作用外，水飞蓟素/水飞蓟宾还显示出具有免疫刺激和免疫抑制活性的免疫调节作用。不同研究表明，水飞蓟素通过抑制核因子κB信号通路和肿瘤坏死因子-α的激活发挥抗炎作用。它还以剂量和时间依赖性方式具有不同的免疫调节活性。作为一种免疫调节剂，水飞蓟素在低剂量时抑制T淋巴细胞功能，而在高剂量时刺激炎症过程。研究表明，水飞蓟素减轻了自身免疫性、过敏性、先兆子痫、癌症和免疫介导的肝脏疾病，并且还抑制了氧化和亚硝化免疫毒性。水飞蓟素对不同细胞的增殖和凋亡也显示出双重作用。总之，基于当前的综述，水飞蓟素在不同条件下具有广泛的免疫调节功能。认识水飞蓟素在细胞和分子途径上的确切机制对于治疗免疫介导的疾病非常有价值。还需要进一步研究来评估水飞蓟素在保护人类受试者免受自身免疫性、癌症、过敏性和其他疾病方面的效用。
