Thymol Protects against Aspergillus Fumigatus Keratitis by Inhibiting the LOX-1/IL-1β Signaling Pathway

Thymol Ameliorates Aspergillus fumigatus Keratitis by Downregulating the TLR4/ MyD88/ NF-kB/ IL-1β Signal Expression and Reducing Necroptosis and Pyroptosis

“…1A ). In other words, it was shown that 50 μg/ml thymol treatment did not affect cell migration from the limbus to the ulcer site, and this concentration did not affect cell proliferation, which further verifies the credibility of our previous experiments [ 7 ].…”

“…Though antifungal drugs are the first-line drugs in the treatment of A. fumigatus keratitis, each antifungal has its advantages and boundedness, and a large proportion of patients still need active surgical intervention after the failure of drug treatment [ 13 - 15 ]. Our previous study had found that thymol, as a plant extract, had a curative effect on A. fumigatus keratitis [ 7 ]. In that article, our laboratory demonstrated that thymol not only have anti- A. fumigatus activity, but also inhibited the LOX-1/ IL-1β signal.…”

“…The corneas were observed and photographed under slit lamp ( n = 8/group). Ocular disease was scored on the basis of Wu’s criteria [ 7 ]. Mice corneas obtained for 1 day of therapy were analyzed by Western blotting and qRT-PCR.…”

“…The Western blot protocol used was previously described [ 7 ]. The primary antibodies included anti-TLR4 (Proteintech, China), anti-MyD88 (Proteintech), anti-NF-kB (R&D Systems, U.S.A.), anti-RIPK3 (Proteintech), anti-MLKL (Proteintech), anti-NLRP3 (ZEN BIO, China), anti-Caspase1 (Novus, U.S.A.), anti-Caspase8 (Proteintech), anti-GSDMD (ABclonal, China), anti-IL-1β (R&D Systems), and anti-β-actin (Elabscience, China).…”

“…Due to poor treatment, some patients will eventually become blind. Our previous experiment found that thymol could inhibit not only the growth of fungi, but also inflammation [ 7 ]. As a potential new drug in A. fumigatus keratitis, we further studied the anti-inflammatory mechanism of thymol.…”