Chungsim-Yeunja-Tang decreases the inflammatory response in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with cerebral infarction through an NF-κB dependent mechanism

Background: chungsim-yeunja-tang (cyt) has been used as a medicine for cerebral infarction (ci) patients in korea. the objective of this study was to determine precisely the effect of cyt on ci patients using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmcs).methods: for a clinical study,47 ci patients were identified who had taken cyt (0.01 g/kg) 3 times a day after meals for 2 weeks by oral administration. for ex vivo experiments,peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmcs) were isolated from ci patients. we analyzed the effect of cyt and its main components on lipopolysaccharide (lps)-induced cytokine production and mechanism on pbmcs of ci patients by using elisa,western blot analysis,transcription factor enzyme-linked immunoassay,and caspase assay.results: clinical signs of ci significantly disappeared about 2 weeks after oral administration of cyt to ci patients (p < 0.05). cyt and quercetin,an active compound of cyt,significantly inhibited lps-induced interleukin (il)-1β,il-6,and tumor necrosis factor (tnf)-α production and expression in pbmcs. cyt and quercetin also inhibited lps-induced nuclear translocation and dna binding activities of nuclear factor-κb and degradation of iκbα. in addition,cyt and quercetin inhibited lps-induced il-32 expression and caspase-1 activation.conclusion: these results suggest a mechanism that might explain the beneficial effect of cyt in treating ci patients. taken together,our findings indicate that inhibition of il-32 expression and caspase-1 activation may be a novel biomarker and potential therapeutic target in ci. © 2010 jeong et al; licensee biomed central ltd.