Inhibitory Effect of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Ephedra sinica granules on Streptococcus pneumoniae Pneumolysin.

In this study, we found that ESG treatment significantly inhibited the oligomerization of PLY and then reduced the activity of PLY without affecting S. pneumoniae growth and PLY production. In a PLY and A549 cell co-incubation system, the addition of ESG resulted in significant protection against PLY-mediated cell injury. Furthermore, S. pneumoniae-infected mice showed decreased mortality, and alleviated tissue damage and inflammatory reactions following treatment with ESG. Our results indicate that ESG is a potential candidate treatment for S. pneumoniae infection that targets PLY. This finding partially elucidates the mechanism of the Chinese herbal formula ESG in the treatment of pneumococcal disease.
PMID: 32475921 [PubMed - in process]

Source: Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin - June 3, 2020 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Xu Y, Wei L, Wang Y, Ding L, Guo Y, Sun X, Kong Y, Guo L, Guo T, Sun L Tags: Biol Pharm Bull Source Type: research