The Preventive Effect of the Traditional Japanese Herbal Medicine, Hochuekkito, against Influenza A Virus via Autophagy in vitro

Abstract

Background: Hochuekkito (HKT), a traditional Japanese herbal medicine, enhances the immunity of elderly or weak individuals. It is also known to have preventive effects against influenza clinically. However, the detailed mechanisms of the preventive effects have not been clarified. We examined the relationship between the preventive effects of HKT and autophagy, a known stress response and quality control mechanism, using Madin-Darby canine kidney cells and influenza A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) virus. Methods: The effect of HKT on autophagy in influenza A virus (IAV)-infected cells was assessed by Western blotting and fluorescence microscopy using an RFP-GFP-LC3B sensor kit. Results: In Western blotting, treatment with HKT before IAV infection (pre-HKT) tended to induce autophagy in IAV-infected cells at an early stage of infection, eventually suppressing IAV-induced autophagy. Moreover, several autolysosomes, indicative of normal autophagosome-lysosome fusion, were observed in Pre-HKT cells transduced with RFP-GFP-LC3B but not in untreated IAV-infected cells. Conclusions: These findings indicated that IAV-mediated inhibition of the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes was prevented by HKT treatment before infection. According to these results, we propose that this phenomenon is one of the preventive effects of HKT against IAV.

Bcl-2-dependent autophagy disruption during aging impairs amino acid utilization that is restored by hochuekkito

“…Next, we investigated the effects of HET on energy homeostasis in aged FR mice, because recent studies have demonstrated the potential of HET to induce autophagy 16 , 17 and restore metabolic homeostasis 18 . The results in Table 1 demonstrate the capacity of HET and its ingredients to induce autophagy as assessed by HEK293 autophagy-reporter cells.…”

“…Clinical studies have reported that HET improves fatigue, lack of energy, and low body temperature in adult patients with appetite loss 37 , QOL and immunological status of elderly patients with weakness 38 , and nutritional status in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 39 . Several studies carried out in vitro have demonstrated the potential of HET to restore metabolic homeostasis 18 and promote autophagy 16 , 17 . We confirmed that HET and 9 of its chemical ingredients derived from astragalus root, jujube, ginger, and ginseng induced autophagy in studies featuring reporter cells; these studies suggest that these compounds may contribute to the inductive effects of HET.…”

Oral Administration of East Asian Herbal Medicine for Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Association Rule Analysis to Identify Core Herb Combinations

“…Recent scientific research, on the contrary, has indicated that the combinatorial effect of mixed EAHM preparation can be particularly effective for complicated disorders, such as PN, autoimmune disease, degenerative disease, and cancer, which do not react well with single compound-based modern pharmaceutics [121][122][123][124]. As an example, recent research has demonstrated that EAHM can be used in large-scale public health emergencies, such as COVID-19 or preventive medicine using modern analytical tools, such as synthetic biology, data mining, and genomics [123,[125][126][127][128]. Future studies need to be conducted to identify the properties of EAHM to be utilized in actual drug discovery.…”

Expression of Autophagy-Related Factors LC3A and Beclin 1 and Apoptosis-Related Factors Bcl-2 and BAX in Osteoblasts Treated With Sodium Fluoride

“…This may be one of the reasons for the pathological changes of osteomalacia, osteosclerosis, and osteoporosis in fluorosis. Light chain 3 alpha (LC3A) and Beclin 1 have been used as markers to detect autophagy activity ( Ding et al, 2016 ). Apoptosis is regulated by many related genes, such as B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2-associated X (BAX) ( Anesan et al, 2018 ).…”