Abstract

BackgroundPropolis, an ancient herbal medicine, has been reported the beneficial effect both in asthma patients and murine model of asthma, but the mechanism was not clearly understood. In this study, the effect of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), the most extensively studied components in propolis, on the functions of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDCs) was investigated.ResultsCAPE significantly inhibited IL-12 p40, IL-12 p70, IL-10 protein expression in mature healthy human MoDCs stimulated by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and IL-12 p40, IL-10, IP-10 stimulated by crude mite extract. CAPE significantly inhibited IL-10 and IP-10 but not IL-12 expression in allergic patients' MoDCs stimulated by crude mite extract. In contrast, the upregulation of costimulatory molecules in mature MoDCs was not suppressed by CAPE. Further, the antigen presenting ability of DCs was not inhibited by CAPE. CAPE inhibited IκBα phosphorylation and NF-κB activation but not mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family phosphorylation in human MoDCs.ConclusionThese results indicated that CAPE inhibited cytokine and chemokine production by MoDCs which might be related to the NF-κB signaling pathway. This study provided a new insight into the mechanism of CAPE in immune response and the rationale for propolis in the treatment of asthma and other allergic disorders.

Highlights

  • Propolis, an ancient herbal medicine, has been reported the beneficial effect both in asthma patients and murine model of asthma, but the mechanism was not clearly understood

  • caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) could only significantly inhibit the IL-10 and IFN-γ-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) production from patients' monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDCs) stimulated by crude mite extract (P = 0.030, 0.002 respectively)

  • Our results showed that CAPE significantly inhibited IL12 p40, IL-12 p70, IL-10 protein expression in mature healthy human MoDCs stimulated by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and IL-12 p40, IL-10, inducible protein (IP)-10 stimulated by

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Summary

Introduction

An ancient herbal medicine, has been reported the beneficial effect both in asthma patients and murine model of asthma, but the mechanism was not clearly understood. BMC Immunology 2009, 10:39 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2172/10/39 the control of asthma. These drugs do have some side effects such as oral thrush, inhibition of growth[1] or increased risk of severe asthma exacerbation [2]. Sublingual immunotherapy, which was safe in children, has only low to moderate clinical efficacy in mild to moderate persistent asthma [5,6]. Other novel treatments in murine model of asthma, such as central deoxycytidyl-deoxyguanosine (CpG) dinucleotide inhalation, DNA vaccination and antisense oligonucleotide are not yet proved in human [7]

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