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Anti-Inflammatory and Immunostimulatory Activities of Astragalosides

Central Laboratory, The No.1 Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming 650021, P. R. China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Feng Gao

College of Pharmacy and Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Chinese Medicine Basis & New Drugs Research, Shanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xi’an, Shaanxi 712046, P. R. China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Lifei Hou

Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

E-mail Address: Lifei.Hou@childrens.harvard.edu

Correspondence to: Dr. Lifei Hou, Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Tel: (+1) 617-713-8154, Fax: (+1) 617-713-8151.

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Chunping Wan

Central Laboratory, The No.1 Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming 650021, P. R. China

E-mail Address: wanchunping1012@163.com

Correspondence to: Dr. Chunping Wan, Central Laboratory, The No.1 Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 120 Guanghua Street, Kunming 650021, P. R. China. Tel: (+86) 0871-6362-3051, Fax: (+86) 0871-6362-3051.

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X1750063XCited by:100 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch) Bge (Huang-Qi) is a well-known herbal medicine with tonic property and has been widely used to treat cancer and other immune disorders in China and Southeast Asia for thousands of years. Accumulating evidence suggests that Huang-Qi possesses both immune-boosting and anti-inflammatory/immune-regulatory effects clinically, leaving the mechanism elusive. Recently, we discovered that Astragaloside (ASI), a major active component of Huang-Qi, is able to increase CD45 phosphatase activity. In this paper, we reviewed the recent progress of ASIs in immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory activities, including the induction of T-cell activation, regulation of effector/regulatory T-cell balance, enhancement of CD45 phosphatase activity, inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokine and, NF- $κ$ $κ$ B pathway. Finally, we hypothesized that inducing interferon- $γ$ $γ$ (IFN- $γ$ $γ$ ) activity by activating CD45 protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) may be involved in the protective role of ASI in two contrary immune-associated diseases. These pharmacological properties highlight the traditional uses of Astragalus and provide a new direction for subsequent research and the clinical application of this traditional herbal.

Keywords:

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