Oral administration of Urtica�macrorrhiza Hand.‑Mazz. polysaccharides to protect against cyclophosphamide‑induced intestinal immunosuppression

Abstract

As a strategy to prevent the well-known immunosuppressant effects of cyclophosphamide (CY), the immunomodulatory activity of the polysaccharide isolated from Urtica macrorrhiza Hand.-Mazz. (UMHMPS) was investigated in the present study. The chemical properties of UMHMPS, including total carbohydrates, uronic acid, protein contents, monosaccharide compositions, molecular weight and structural confirmation, were investigated. The immunomodulatory activity of UMHMPS was evaluated using a CY-induced immunosuppression mouse model. The results revealed that UMHMPS, which is composed of rhamnose, gluconic acid, galactose acid, galactose and xylose, exhibited potent immunomodulatory activity and low toxicity in mice. It increased the secretions of secretory immunoglobulin A, interferon (IFN)-γ and interleukin (IL)-4, and maintained the balance of the ratios of IFN-γ/IL-4 and cluster of differentiation (CD)3 + /CD19 + cells in Peyer's patches. Furthermore, it increased the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4, indicating that TLR4 may be one of the receptors of UMHMPS. Therefore, the present study provides evidence for the potential use of UMHMPS as an immune enhancement drug in chemotherapy.

Restorative Effects of Inulin From Codonopsis pilosula on Intestinal Mucosal Immunity, Anti-Inflammatory Activity and Gut Microbiota of Immunosuppressed Mice

“…Studies have demonstrated that CY destroys intestinal mucosal system by reducing barrier function, injuring intestinal villi and crypts, inhibiting secretion of sIgA and damaging Peyer’s patch ( Miao et al, 2015 ; Zhao et al, 2016 ; Wang Z et al, 2019 ). In gastrointestinal mucosal barrier, goblet cells continually produce mucins to replenish and maintain the mucus barrier, where some chemical composition like sIgA is higher concentrated ( Ouwerkerk et al, 2013 ; Cornick et al, 2015 ).…”

“…Although CY is an alkylating drug used on cancer and autoimmune disease, it has been used as an immunosuppression-inducing agent due to its major side effect ( Wang Z et al, 2019 ). In this study, a stable and classical CY-induced immunosuppression model was used to evaluate the recovery effect of CPPF on both intestinal immunity and microbiota modulation, according to several previous studies ( Tang et al, 2018 ; Zhu et al, 2018 ; Wang Z et al, 2019 ). The mice were divided into five groups, 12 mice each.…”