Medicinal herbs have been used over the past centuries for restoring the body’s homeostatic balance. Contemporary use of herbal supplements remains widespread in many cultures as treatment for specific ailments. Many possess cardiovascular actions, and some interact with cardiac medications. However, there is variable scientific evidence with respect to their safety and efficacy, and few have b...

A review with 54 references covers all aspects of hawthorn, the genus Crataegus, including its traditional uses, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, and clinical effects. Although the effectiveness of hawthorn on the treatment of cardiovascular diseases has received extensive attention worldwide, further scientific research on various areas such as pharmacokinetics, mechanism of ...

αβ and γδ T cells are thought to arise from a common precursor in the thymus but play distinct roles in pathogen resistance. Although conventional αβ T cells exit the thymus in a naive state and acquire effector function in the periphery, the effector fate of many γδ T cells is specified in the thymus and exhibits limited plasticity thereafter. This review describes the current models that have...

A key consequence of regulatory T cell (Treg) suppression of CD4 T cells is the inhibition of IL-2 production, yet how Tregs attenuate IL-2 has not been defined. Current models predict a termination of TCR signaling, by disrupting T-APC contacts, or TCR signal modification, through mechanisms such as cAMP. To directly define Treg effects on TCR signaling in CD4 T cell targets, we visualized cha...