Traditional herbal medicine-derived sulforaphene LFS-01 reverses colitis in mice by selectively altering the gut microbiota and promoting intestinal gamma-delta T cells

Ming Li*, Jiali Gao, Yan Tang, Meishuo Liu, Sijin Wu, Kunli Qu, Xiangyu Long, Huajun Li, Min Liu, Yinhui Liu, Jieli Yuan, Lei Mao, Yu Liu, Xiliang Zheng, Erkang Wang, Jin Wang, Yongliang Yang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sulforaphene (LFS-01) is a natural compound derived from traditional herbal medicine. Here, we show that oral administration of LFS-01 is able to dramatically alter the skewed gut microbiota and reverse colitis in model mice associated with an increase of intestinal γδT cells. Through 16S rDNA sequencing, we showed that LFS-01 can selectively suppress enteric pathogens such as Escherichia-Shigella and Helicobacter whereas the protective strains including Lactobacillus and Lachnospiraceae were significantly expanded after LFS-01 treatment. Interestingly, we demonstrated that LFS-01 administration can significantly promote the IL-17+γδT cells in model mice in response to the expanded Lactobacillus. We verified that the intracellular components of Lactobacillus can stimulate the growth of IL-17+γδT cells upon preincubation. The increased IL-17A after LFS-01 treatment in turn recovers the disrupted occludin subcellular location and protects the epithelial barrier in the colon of model mice. Remarkably, LFS-01 does not show apparent toxicity to animals and we demonstrated that LFS-01 also exerts strong protective effects in TNBS-induced colitis rats. Therefore, LFS-01 holds great promise for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and warrants translation for use in clinical trials. Our work provided a new avenue for the treatment of IBD based on the strategy of harnessing intestinal symbiosis.

Original languageEnglish
Article number959
JournalFrontiers in Pharmacology
Volume8
Issue numberJAN
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Barrier function
  • Colitis
  • Herbal medicine
  • Microbiota
  • Sulforaphene
  • γδ cells

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