PURPOSE Nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, improved overall survival versus everolimus in a phase 3 trial of previously treated patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). We investigated immunomodulatory activity of nivolumab in a hypothesis-generating prospective mRCC trial. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Nivolumab was administered intravenously every 3 weeks at 0.3, 2, or ...

Cathelicidin LL-37 is a multifunctional, immunomodulatory and antimicrobial host-defense peptide of the human immune system. Here, we identified the role of SFKs in mediating the chemokine induction activity of LL-37 in monocytic cells. LL-37 induced SFK phosphorylation; and chemical inhibitors of SFKs suppressed chemokine production in response to LL-37 stimulation. SFKs were required for the ...

OBJECTIVE There are a number of medicinal plant products which has been used to treat various immunological diseases. Out of these medicinal plants, Calamus rotang has shown several medicinal properties including anti-viral, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory effects. Normally, the roots of C. rotang are used in various ailments to cure piles, burning sensation, cough, leprosy and bleeding disord...

Ricin toxin binding subunit B (RTB) is one of the subunits of the ricin protein. RTB has been used as adjuvant, but little is known about its mechanism. In this study, we found that RTB increased not only nitric oxide (NO) release, but also tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 production in mouse macrophage cell line RAW264.7 cells. They subsequently exhibited enhanced ConA-indu...

Bilirubin is an endogenous product of heme degradation in mammals. Bilirubin has long been considered as a cytotoxic waste product that needs to be excreted. However, increasing evidence suggests that bilirubin possesses multiple biological activities. In particular, recent studies have shown that bilirubin should be a protective factor for several autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthrit...

Epilobium angustifolium has been traditionally used to treat of a number of diseases; however, not much is known regarding its effect on innate immune cells. In this study, we report that extracts of E. angustifolium activated functional responses in neutrophils and monocyte/macrophages. Activity-guided fractionation, followed by mass spectroscopy and NMR analysis, resulted in the identificatio...

The immune system is one of our most complex biological systems in the body. Immunization may be active or passive. The active immunization involves stimulation with an antigen to develop immunological defences against a future exposure and passive immunization involves administration of preformed antibodies to an individual who is already exposed to be exposed to an antigen. Immunomodulatory a...

The aim of this work was to investigate the immunomodulatory activities of Rubus coreanus Miquel extract-loaded gelatin nanoparticles. The mean size of the produced nanoparticles was 143 ± 18 nm with a bandwidth of 76 nm in the size distribution and a maximum size of ~200 nm, which allows effective nanoparticle uptake by cells. Confocal imaging confirmed this, since the nanoparticles were inter...

Saffron petal is the main by-product of saffron processing which produced at high level but it is not applied and thrown out. Saffron petal is containing of several compounds such as mineral agents, anthocyanins, flavonoids, glycosides, alkaloids and kaempferol. As saffron petal is cheaper and produces in large amounts compared to saffron stigma, so, it can be considered as an appropriate sourc...

Because human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) have profound immunomodulatory effects, many attempts have been made to use hMSCs in preclinical and clinical trials. For hMSCs to be used in therapy, a large population of hMSCs must be generated by in vitro expansion. However, the immunomodulatory changes following the in vitro expansion of hMSCs have not been elucidated. In this study, we evaluated...