title: Polysaccharide of radix pseudostellariae improves chronic fatigue syndrome induced by poly I:C in mice.
abstract: Radix Pseudostellariae is used as a tonic drug in traditional Chinese medicine with immunomodulating and anti-fatigue activities, and the polysaccharide is considered as the main active component. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the polysaccharide isolated from Radix Pseudostellariae (PRP) on mouse chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) induced by intraperitoneal injection of polyriboinosinic:polyribocytidylic acid (poly I:C), a double-stranded synthetic RNA. It has shown that the fatigue symptom of mice lasted at least 1 week as evaluated by forced swimming time. PRP (100, 200, 400 mg kg(-1)), orally administered 3 days before poly I:C injection, showed dose-dependent anti-fatigue effects. In addition, poly I:C led to evident alternations in neuroendocrine and immune systems of mice, such as reduced spontaneous activity and learning ability, declined serum level of corticosterone, increased weight indexes and T lymphocyte numbers in thymuses and spleens, and increased CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio but decreased proliferation ability of T lymphocytes in spleens. PRP alleviated the abnormalities caused by poly I:C, and restored the function of hosts to normal conditions. The findings suggest that PRP is beneficial to CFS, and the underlying mechanisms of action involve neuroendocrine and immune systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology of Chinese Materia Medica, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Xianxiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Difei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xinghua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yubin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Yufeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dai