St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) counteracts cytokine-induced tryptophan catabolism in vitro
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Christiana Winkler
, Barbara Wirleitner , Katharina Schroecksnadel , Harald Schennach and Dietmar Fuchs
Abstract
St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is an ancient folk remedy that has antiviral and antibacterial properties. Anti-inflammatory effects of the plant have been described and the application of H. perforatum extract as an effective antidepressant is well established. In this study we assayed the effect of H. perforatum extract on cytokine-induced tryptophan degradation in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Simultaneously, changes in the production of the immune activation marker neopterin were monitored. Both these biochemical pathways are triggered by interferon-γ. Our results show that extracts of H. perforatum strongly down-regulate mitogen-mediated tryptophan degradation in a dose-dependent manner. This effect seems to be based on a suppressive activity of H. perforatum on activated immunocompetent cells, resulting in a diminished production of interferon-γ. In line with this finding, neopterin synthesis was strongly down-regulated by the plant extract. Our results suggest that the reduction of tryptophan degradation by H. perforatum might be important in the action of the plant as an antidepressant.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Structural flexibility of small GTPases. Can it explain their functional versatility?
- Neuroendocrine regulation of salivary IgA synthesis and secretion: implications for oral health
- Structural characterization of extracellular lipase from Streptomyces rimosus: assignment of disulfide bridge pattern by mass spectrometry
- Thermal unfolding of ribonuclease T1 studied by multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy
- Conserved asparagine residue 54 of α-sarcin plays a role in protein stability and enzyme activity
- Replacement of the interchain disulfide bridge-forming amino acids A7 and B7 by glutamate impairs the structure and activity of insulin
- Stereospecificity of horseradish peroxidase
- Novel thioredoxin targets in Dictyostelium discoideum identified by two-hybrid analysis: interactions of thioredoxin with elongation factor 1α and yeast alcohol dehydrogenase
- Functional characterization of the postulated intramolecular sphingolipid activator protein domain of human acid sphingomyelinase
- St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) counteracts cytokine-induced tryptophan catabolism in vitro
- Nuclear fibroblast growth factor-2 interacts specifically with splicing factor SF3a66
- Content Index
- Author Index
- Subject Index