Adv Sci: Professor Li Zhanguo's team found that the tonsil flora can regulate host immunity and fight rheumatoid arthritis

Tonsils are not unfamiliar to everyone, it is an important lymphoid organ, because of its production of lymphocytes and antibodies, can deal with the invasion of a variety of pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc.

Recently, Professor Li Zhanguo's research group of the Clinical Immunology Center of Peking University People's Hospital and the research group of Professor Wang Jun of the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated to publish a paper online in the international top academic journal Advanced Science to prove the immunomodulatory effect

It is understood that the oropharynx is the only way to eat and breathe, therefore, the tonsils are rich in microorganisms, which not only have beneficial bacteria, but also contain pathogenic bacteria

Studies have found that the symbiotic flora of the body is closely related

First of all, by extracting the tonsil flora of patients and normal people, using metagenomic sequencing method, the researchers found that the tonsillar flora of RA patients was obviously abnormal, and we detected defects in the biosynthesis and transport of lantibiotics in the RA tonsilla; According to metagenomic data analysis, when the beneficial bacteria in the tonsil are reduced, the antibacterial ability can be greatly reduced, and the surrounding inflammatory response cannot be controlled, resulting in infection or immune reaction

Figure: Tonsillar microbiome-derived wool sulfur antibiotic peptide sialic acid is defective in patients with RA and is associated

It was further found that silymarin downregulated the production of IL-21 in human PBMCs

Salivaricins inhibit IL-21 production and Tfh cell differentiation in vitro

It was further found that salivain binds directly to IL-6 and IL-21 receptors, inhibiting the IL-6R/IL-21R-STAT3 signaling pathway

Photo: Salivaricins inhibit IL-6R/IL-21R-STAT3 signaling pathway

In rheumatoid arthritis, sialic acid plays an anti-arthritis role

Figure: Sialic acid has a protective effect

This is the first international study

Experts say that cytokines are a double-edged sword, that is, they can play an immunomodulatory role and participate in the occurrence of many diseases

Original source:

Li J, Jin J, Li S, Zhong Y, Jin Y, Zhang X, Xia B, Zhu Y, Guo R, Sun X, Guo J, Hu F, Xiao W, Huang F, Ye H, Li R, Zhou Y, Xiang X, Yao H, Yan Q, Su L, Wu L, Luo T,Liu Y, Guo X, Qin J, Qi H, He J, Wang J, Li Z.