title: Uncovering potential 'herbal probiotics' in Juzen-taiho-to through the study of associated bacterial populations.
abstract: Juzen-taiho-to (JTT) is an immune-boosting formulation of ten medicinal herbs. It is used clinically in East Asia to boost the human immune functions. The active factors in JTT have not been clarified. But, existing evidence suggests that lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-like factors contribute to the activity. To examine this possibility, JTT was subjected to a series of analyses, including high resolution mass spectrometry, which suggested the presence of structural variants of LPS. This finding opened a possibility that JTT contains immune-boosting bacteria. As the first step to characterize the bacteria in JTT, 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing was carried out for Angelica sinensis (dried root), one of the most potent immunostimulatory herbs in JTT. The sequencing revealed a total of 519 bacteria genera in A. sinensis. The most abundant genus was Rahnella, which is widely distributed in water and plants. The abundance of Rahnella appeared to correlate with the immunostimulatory activity of A. sinensis. In conclusion, the current study provided new pieces of evidence supporting the emerging theory of bacterial contribution in immune-boosting herbs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Montenegro
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Kriti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kalpana
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chrissian
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takaoka
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iacovidou
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Clifford E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Soll
authors.affiliation: Genome Technology Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Aminova
authors.affiliation: Genome Technology Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heguy
authors.affiliation: Genome Technology Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Genome Technology Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Center for Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, NYU School of Medicine, 227 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hunter College of CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kawamura
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D029971:Angelica sinensis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D002460:Cell Line; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D056186:Metagenomics; D019936:Probiotics / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000378:metabolism; D020638:Rahnella / Q000378:metabolism; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C573420:ICAM1 protein, human; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; C063587:juzentaihoto; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1
keywords: Herbal medicine; Lipopolysaccharide; Mass spectrometry; Metagenomics; Next-generation sequencing; Rhizobacteria