Elicidation of action mechanism of Hochuekkito through immunomodulation of intestinal epithelial cells

日本药方Hochuekkito已被用于预防上呼吸道感染和治疗抗癌化疗所致的肠粘膜炎所致的厌食症，但其临床作用机制尚不清楚。本研究提出：1)方剂可加强对IRAK-M等调节接头分子的诱导，从而改善药物性粘膜炎；2)方剂中的低聚糖具有增强上呼吸道黏膜免疫系统的活性成分；3)低聚糖可调节Peyer‘s斑块免疫活性细胞及小肠上皮细胞的免疫功能；4)低聚糖可通过诱导IRAK-M而改善药物性小肠粘膜炎。

Japanese herbal prescription 'Hochuekkito" has been used for prevention of upper respiratory infection and treatment of anorexia based on intestinal mucositis induced by anti-cancer chemotherapy, however, action mechanism of the prescription for these clinical effects have not been well clarified. The present study proposed that 1) the prescription enhanced induction of regulative adaptor molecules such as IRAK-M to result improvement of drug-induced mucostis, 2) oligosaccharides in the prescription play as active ingredients for enhancement of mucosal immune system of upper respiratory tract, 3) the oligosaccharides could modulate immune fuction of immunocompetent cells in Peyer's patches as well as epithelial cells of small intestine, 4) the oligosaccharides could improve drug-induced mucositis in small intestine through induction of IRAK-M.