Postdoctoral Fellow Akiko Inushima and Professor Keiichi Koizumi of the Institute of Natural Medicine University of Toyama, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences / Japanese-Chinese Pharmaceutical Research Institute, and Professor Naotoshi Shibahara of the Japanese-Chinese Pharmaceutical Education and Training Center have heat-resistant during decoction of crude drugs. It was clarified that a sex RNA exists and that this RNA has an immunostimulatory effect.
Among the crude drugs including Chinese herbal medicine, some of them have been reported to have an immunostimulatory effect.However, the current situation is that the active ingredients for immune activation of crude drugs are not well understood.
Conventionally, research focusing on the active ingredients contained in the secondary metabolites of biopharmaceuticals has been the mainstream, and research on the primary metabolites of biopharmaceuticals has hardly been conducted. We focused on RNA, one of the nucleic acids.
First, in order to produce a decoction of crude drugs, it was confirmed whether RNA was present without being decomposed even after the steps of drying the harvested plants and boiling them in boiling water.As a result, thermostable RNA of 25 to 200 bases was present in the decoction of licorice, which is a crude drug.Of these, about 30% were derived from licorice-derived RNA, and the others were derived from genes of various microorganisms.
Next, when this RNA was allowed to act on mouse macrophage cells, it was revealed that immune activation was induced.Specifically, it was confirmed that the activation of "transcription factor NF-κB", which is known as a regulator of genes that regulate inflammation and cell proliferation, and the enhancement of production of the protein "inflammatory cytokine" that regulates inflammation were confirmed. It is supposed to be.
From the above, it was found that thermostable RNA having an immunostimulatory effect exists in the decoction of crude drugs. It is the first discovery in crude drug / Chinese medicine research that RNA may be one of the active ingredients for immune activation of crude drugs / Chinese medicine.In the future, it aims to clarify the details of the immune activation mechanism by RNA contained in the decoction of crude drugs.
Paper information:[Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy] Immunostimulant properties of heat-resistant RNA in a decoction of Glycyrrhizae Radix
