Therapeutic Potential of Pien Tze Huang on Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Rat

J Immunol Res. 2018 Feb 27:2018:2952471. doi: 10.1155/2018/2952471. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). There is still lack of commercially viable treatment currently. Pien Tze Huang (PZH), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been proved to have anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and immunoregulatory effects. This study investigated the possible therapeutic effects of PZH on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) rats, a classic animal model of MS. Male Lewis rats were immunized with myelin basic protein (MBP) peptide to establish an EAE model and then treated with three doses of PZH. Clinical symptoms, organ coefficient, histopathological features, levels of proinflammatory cytokines, and chemokines as well as MBP and Olig2 were analyzed. The results indicated that PZH ameliorated the clinical severity of EAE rats. It also remarkably reduced inflammatory cell infiltration in the CNS of EAE rats. Furthermore, the levels of IL-17A, IL-23, CCL3, and CCL5 in serum and the CNS were significantly decreased; the p-P65 and p-STAT3 levels were also downregulated in the CNS, while MBP and Olig2 in the CNS of EAE rats had a distinct improvement after PZH treatment. In addition, PZH has no obvious toxicity at the concentration of 0.486 g/kg/d. This study demonstrated that PZH could be used to treat MS.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Brain / immunology*
  • Cell Movement
  • Cytokines / metabolism
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal / therapeutic use*
  • Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / therapy*
  • Humans
  • Inflammation Mediators / metabolism
  • Male
  • Medicine, Chinese Traditional
  • Multiple Sclerosis / therapy*
  • Myelin Basic Protein / immunology
  • Neoplasm Proteins / metabolism
  • Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Proteins / metabolism
  • Rats
  • Rats, Inbred Lew
  • STAT3 Transcription Factor / metabolism

Substances

  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents
  • Cytokines
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal
  • Inflammation Mediators
  • Myelin Basic Protein
  • Neoplasm Proteins
  • Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Proteins
  • STAT3 Transcription Factor
  • p65 oncofetal mRNA transport protein, rat
  • pien tze huang