TY - JOUR T1 - Immunomodulation mediated by a herbal syrup containing a standardized Echinacea root extract: a pilot study in healthy human subjects on cytokine gene expression. JF - Phytomedicine Y1 - 2014 A1 - Dapas, B A1 - Dall'Acqua, S A1 - Bulla, R A1 - Agostinis, C A1 - Perissutti, B A1 - Invernizzi, S A1 - Grassi, G A1 - Voinovich, D KW - Adult KW - Cytokines KW - Down-Regulation KW - Echinacea KW - Female KW - Glycosides KW - Healthy Volunteers KW - Humans KW - Immunomodulation KW - Interleukin-2 KW - Interleukin-6 KW - Interleukin-8 KW - Lymphocytes KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Monocytes KW - Pilot Projects KW - Plant Extracts KW - Plant Roots KW - Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha AB -

In this study, the immunomodulatory effect of a triply standardized Echinacea angustifolia root extract (Polinacea(®)) was evaluated in 10 healthy subjects. Ten ml of syrup containing one hundred mg of extract (corresponding to 4.7 mg of Echinacoside and 8.0mg of a high molecular weight-20,000 Da- polysaccharide) were administered as a herbal syrup once a day for one month. The immunomodulatory effect was evaluated before and after herbal syrup administration evaluating the expression levels of the cytokines IL-2, IL-8, IL-6 and TNF-α. Cytokine expression was studied in lympho-monocytes and in plasma samples measuring the mRNA and protein levels, respectively. The results were analysed by ANOVA and non-parametric Friedman rank sum tests; when possible it was adopted a pair-wise comparisons at different post-treatment times, using the paired t-tests with Holm correction. The correlation between the variations of cytokine plasma levels and the respective mRNA was carried out using a linear regression model. In lympho-monocytes our data indicate the up-regulation of the mRNA levels of IL-2 and IL-8 and the down regulation of the mRNA levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL6. The differential regulation was maximal after 14 days of treatment. IL-2 up-regulation and IL-6 down-regulation were also confirmed at the protein level in plasma. Finally, the up-regulation of the mRNA of IL-2/IL-8 and the down-regulation of IL-6 positively correlated with the protein levels detected in the plasma. In conclusion, this pilot study suggests a relevant role for the standardized Echinacea angustifolia root extract in the control of cytokine expression. This first demonstration of the immuno-modulating activity of Echinacea angustifolia root extract in the healthy subject, supports at least in part the common use of such products as health promoting supplement.

VL - 21 IS - 11 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24877712?dopt=Abstract ER -