Immunomodulatory activity of a novel polysaccharide from Lonicera japonica in immunosuppressed mice induced by cyclophosphamide

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204152
• Publication Date: 2018-10-08T17:30:09Z
• Authors: Xiaonan Zhou; Qun Dong; Xianzhao Kan; Lihong Peng; Xingyu Xu; Yun Fang; Jialiang Yang
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; Science; Immunocompromised Host; Mice; Random Allocation; 03 medical and health sciences; Polysaccharides; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Animals; Immunologic Factors; Lymphocytes; Cyclophosphamide; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Qualitative Research; Cell Proliferation; Plant Extracts; Q; R; 3. Good health; Lonicera; Medicine; Cytokines; Spleen; Research Article

Lonicera japonica is a typical Chinese herbal medicine. We previously reported a method to isolate polysaccharides from Lonicera japonica (LJP). In this study, we first performed a qualitative analysis of LJP using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FT-IR) and explored the monosaccharide composition of LJP using the pre-column derivatization high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. We then investigated the immunomodulatory function of LJP in cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced immunosuppressed mouse models. The results showed that LJP had the characteristic absorption of typical polysaccharides consisting of 6 types of monosaccharides. In addition, LJP can increase significantly the organ index, splenic lymphocyte proliferation, macrophage phagocytosis, and natural killer (NK) cell activity in CTX-treated mice. LJP could also restore the levels of serum cytokines interleukin (IL-2), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in the CTX-treated mice. Finally, the results on measuring the T-lymphocytes subsets of spleen also confirmed LJP-induced immunomodulatory activity in immunosuppressed mice from another perspective. Therefore, LJP could be used as a potential immunomodulatory agent.