Immunosuppressive activity is attenuated by Astragalus polysaccharides through remodeling the gut microenvironment in melanoma mice

Study information

Needs review

study design

laboratory experiment

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

34289209

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1111/cas.15078

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

Authors

Ding G., Gong Q., Ma J., Liu X., Wang Y., Cheng X.

Journal

Cancer science

Year

2021

Keywords:

Astragalus polysaccharides, gut microenvironment, immunosuppressive activity, melanoma, myeloid-derived suppressor cells

Astragalus polysaccharides (APS), the main effective component of Astragalus membranaceus, can inhibit tumor growth, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Previous studies have suggested that APS can regulate the gut microenvironment, including the gut microbiota and fecal metabolites. In this work, our results showed that APS could control tumor growth in melanoma-bearing mice. It could reduce the number of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), as well as the expression of MDSC-related molecule Arg-1 and cytokines IL-10 and TGF-β, so that CD8+ T cells could kill tumor cells more effectively. However, while APS were administered with an antibiotic cocktail (ABX), MDSC could not be reduced, and the growth rate of tumors was accelerated. Consistent with the changes in MDSC, the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-1β were lowest in the APS group. Meanwhile, we found that fecal suspension from mice in the APS group could also reduce the number of MDSC in tumor tissues. These results revealed that APS regulated the immune function in tumor-bearing mice through remodeling the gut microbiota. Next, we focused on the results of 16S rRNA, which showed that APS significantly regulated most microorganisms, such as Bifidobacterium pseudolongum, Lactobacillus johnsonii and Lactobacillus. According to the Spearman analysis, the changes in abundance of these microorganisms were related to the increase of metabolites like glutamate and creatine, which could control tumor growth. The present study demonstrates that APS attenuate the immunosuppressive activity of MDSC in melanoma-bearing mice by remodeling the gut microbiota and fecal metabolites. Our findings reveal the therapeutic potential of APS to control tumor growth.

Experiment 1

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Curated date: 2025/10/17

Curator: YokoC

Revision editor(s): YokoC

Subjects

Location of subjects: China

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Mus musculus

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Traditional Chinese medicine type TCM type,Traditional Chinese medicine type,traditional Chinese medicine type

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Model

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: APS (Astragalus polysaccharides)

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: C57BL/6 mice (male, approximately 20 g, 5-6 weeks) injected subcutaneously with approximately 5 × 10^5 cells of a melanoma cell line to establish tumor models, these were administered Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) for 14 days.

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: T-Test

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: unchanged

Signature 1

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Curated date: 2025/10/17

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Source: Figure 4e

Description: Bar plot of compositional differences at the species level in the gut microbiota of mice in the APS group vs the Model group using Student’s t-test.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in APS (Astragalus polysaccharides)

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Faecalibaculum rodentium
Lactobacillus johnsonii
uncultured Desulfovibrio sp.
uncultured bacterium
unclassified Lactobacillus

Revision editor(s): YokoC

Signature 2

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Source: Figure 4e

Description: Bar plot of compositional differences at the species level in the gut microbiota of mice in the APS (Astragalus polysaccharides) group vs the Model group using Student’s t-test.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in APS (Astragalus polysaccharides)

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Bifidobacterium pseudolongum
Christensenellaceae bacterium
Sphingomonas leidyi
[Clostridium] leptum
uncultured Anaeroplasma sp.
uncultured Anaerotruncus sp.
unclassified Eubacterium coprostanoligenes groupunclassified Eubacterium coprostanoligenes group
uncultured rumen bacterium
unclassified Brachybacterium
unclassified Christensenellaceae
Family XIII AD3011 groupFamily XIII AD3011 group
uncultured bacterium

Revision editor(s): YokoC