Dendritic cells as a pharmacological target of traditional Chinese medicine

Dendritic cells (DCs) represent a heterogeneous population of professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that play a central role in the initiation and regulation of immune responses. There is considerable evidence that DCs can be used as therapeutic targets for pharmacological modulation of immune responses. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long-standing history of using herbal medicine in the treatment of variety of human diseases. Many of the clinical effects of TCM have reportedly been attributed to the up- or down-regulation of immune responses. Accumulating evidence indicates that TCM and its components can interfere with immune responses at the earliest stage by targeting key functions of DCs. Here, we review those published studies of TCM with respect to their effects on immunobiological functions of DCs. Investigations based on both chemical entities derived from TCM as well as TCM herbal mixtures are presented. These studies suggest that various TCM herbal medicines have the capacity to inhibit or promote major functions of DCs, such as differentiation, maturation, cytokine production, survival, antigen uptake and presentation as well as trafficking. These studies have revealed novel biological effects of TCM and documented the utility of this approach to discover novel biological modifier of DC functions derived from natural sources.