Anisomycin Inhibits the Behaviors of T cells and the Allogeneic Skin transplantation in mice

Abstract

There is still a lack of a high potent and low toxic immunosuppressive drug. We accidentally found that a quite low dose of anisomycin was sufficient to block proliferation of T cells. In this study, carboxy-fluorescein diacetate-succinimidyl ester staining showed that over 10.0 ng/mL of anisomycin markedly inhibited the proliferation of T cells induced by ConA. Propidium iodide staining revealed that anisomycin led to G0/G1 arrest and blocked S phase entry stimulated by ConA or phorbol 12, 13-dibutyrate plus ionomycin. Anisomycin down-regulated remarkably the CD69 and CD25 expression on the surface of T cells. The response of T cells was repressed by treatment of anisomycin, which was partly restored by adding exogenous interleukin-2, and there was no difference between anisomycin and dexamethasone, although the used dose of the latter was 100-fold of the former. The inhibition of cytotoxicity of T cells against 7919 cells by anisomycin was observed without the direct cytotoxicity to T cells or 7919 cells. The level of transforming growth factor-beta1 fell by <80.0 ng/mL in vitro and 30.0 mg/kg of anisomycin in vivo and enhanced by more than the doses. The treatment of anisomycin prolonged the survival of the transplanted skin and depressed the delayed type hypersensitivity development and the T-cell response in the skin-transplanted mice. Moreover, the effect of its restraining allograft rejection might be superior to cyclosporine A, with relatively slight toxic signs. These results indicate anisomycin significantly inhibits the behaviors of T cells and the transplantation rejection, providing important evidence for anisomycin as a novel immunosuppressant.