Herb May Offer Hope for Autoimmune Diseases

June 5 -- THURSDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- A compound derived from hydrangea root, an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine, halted the progression of an autoimmune disorder in laboratory mice and human cells, new research shows.

What makes the compound, halofuginone, so promising, the researchers said, is that it slowed progression of the disease without suppressing normal immune system functioning.

A major drawback to current treatments for autoimmune disease is increased risk for infections because of suppressed immune system functioning, according to the study, which appears in the June 5 issue of Science.

"This is really the first description of a small molecule that interferes with autoimmune pathology but is not a general immune suppressant," said the study's lead study author, Mark Sundrud, from the cellular and molecular medicine program and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy tissues and organs.

The disorders, which include multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, are difficult to treat because drugs that can suppress inflammatory attacks by the immune system on body tissues often have the side effect of suppressing the functioning of the immune as well.

Other current treatments include intravenous infusions of antibodies that neutralize cytokines, the chemical messengers produced by T cells that regulate immune function and inflammatory responses.

But the antibodies are expensive and don't stop the production of cytokines, the root cause of disease, according to the study. People must receive frequent infusions to keep inflammation in check.

Previous research has implicated Th17 cells in a variety of autoimmune disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, eczema and psoriasis.

In the study, researchers gave halofuginone to mice with experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE), an artificially induced immune disease that resembles multiple sclerosis in humans.