Prevention of graft-versus-host disease by a novel immunosuppressant,(5R)-5-hydroxytriptolide (LLDT-8), through expansion of regulatory T cells

W Tang, Y Yang, F Zhang, Y Li, R Zhou, J Wang… - International …, 2005 - Elsevier
W Tang, Y Yang, F Zhang, Y Li, R Zhou, J Wang, Y Zhu, X Li, Y Yang, J Zuo
International immunopharmacology, 2005Elsevier
(5R)-5-hydroxytriptolide (LLDT-8) is a new compound derived from triptolide, which is the
major immunosuppressive fraction of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F (TWHF). In this study, we
demonstrated that administration of LLDT-8 (1 mg/kg/day, po) effectively prevented weight
loss and death induced by allo-BMT (BLAB/c, H-2d to C57BL/6, H-2b), and extended
survival in allo-BMT model of aGVHD. Following days 7 to 28 after allo-BMT, the allogeneic
graft survived by increasing the number of engrafted cells (H-2d) in spleens of recipient mice …
(5R)-5-hydroxytriptolide (LLDT-8) is a new compound derived from triptolide, which is the major immunosuppressive fraction of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F (TWHF). In this study, we demonstrated that administration of LLDT-8 (1 mg/kg/day, p.o.) effectively prevented weight loss and death induced by allo-BMT (BLAB/c, H-2d to C57BL/6, H-2b), and extended survival in allo-BMT model of aGVHD. Following days 7 to 28 after allo-BMT, the allogeneic graft survived by increasing the number of engrafted cells (H-2d) in spleens of recipient mice with LLDT-8 treatment. To construe the immunosuppressive effects of LLDT-8, the splenocytes (H-2d) of LLDT-8 treated recipients (H-2b) were tested for the proliferative responses to donor antigen (H-2d), host antigen (H-2b) and mitogen (ConA) stimulations, respectively, the results indicated that LLDT-8 induced the T cells' unresponsiveness to donor and host antigens, while still maintaining response to ConA; Compared with the vehicle group of GVHD mice, administration of LLDT-8 significantly inhibited T cells to produce IFN-γ with or without host antigen or ConA stimulation. Further studies indicated LLDT-8 had a normalizing effect on the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T cells, and increased CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells with the Foxp3 expression in splenocytes from LLDT-8 treated mice. The results outline the great potential of LLDT-8 as a therapeutic tool to induce suppression in GVHD.
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