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Natural Compounds in Immune-Inflammatory Regulation: Mechanisms and Therapeutics

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 336

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Oriental Medicine Materials, Dongshin University, Naju 520-714, Republic of Korea
Interests: natural compound; immune-inflammatory regulation

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Guest Editor
College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong-Ro, Buk-Gu, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea
Interests: inflammation; oxidative stress; asthma; immune balance

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Mokpo National University, Muan 58554, Republic of Korea
Interests: new drugs from natural product; functional foods; analysis of natural sources; immuno-modulatory sources
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Inflammation is a biological protective reaction and is closely related to immune regulation. There are many mediators for immunity, and cytokine is a very important regulator for immune reactions. Currently, cytokine storms, under the severe situation of immune imbalance, can induce them to die. Cytokine storms can occur in the final stage of inflammation and is one of the symptoms during immunity regulation. Furthermore, it is very important to highlight the relation between inflammation and immune mediators. Although many researchers have mainly concentrated on the functional studies of natural products, almost all studies were concluded after acquiring biological effects. However, it is more important to identify and analyze functional compounds and to investigate the mechanism of therapeutic actions.

Through this Special Issue, the relation between inflammation and immune mediators will be illuminated and the bio-active compound analysis method for natural products will be established in order to control metabolic diseases through an in vitro system or/and in vivo.

Dr. Dae-Hun Park
Prof. Dr. Chun-Sik Bae
Prof. Dr. Seung-Sik Cho
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • natural compound
  • immune-inflammatory regulation
  • mechanism
  • cytokine
  • NF-κB/COX-2
  • PGE2

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 3938 KB  
Article
Berberine Alleviates Intestinal Inflammation by Disrupting Pathological Macrophage–Epithelial Crosstalk in Macrophage–Organoid Co-Culture Model
by Yuncong Han, Mengting Li, Tian Chen, Chen Wang, Hong Zhou, Tunan Zhou, Runqing Jia, Ying Chen and Qin Hu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(20), 10161; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms262010161 - 19 Oct 2025
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Abstract
Berberine (BBR), a benzylisoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Chinese herb Coptis chinensis, has been widely used clinically to treat intestinal infectious diseases. Recently, it has been found to have multiple pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory activity and immune effects in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). [...] Read more.
Berberine (BBR), a benzylisoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Chinese herb Coptis chinensis, has been widely used clinically to treat intestinal infectious diseases. Recently, it has been found to have multiple pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory activity and immune effects in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, its exact targets remain to be elucidated. In this study, we used a mouse intestinal organoid–macrophage co-culture model to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects and immune effects of BBR. Our findings demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced more robust inflammatory responses and epithelium damage in the co-culture system compared to the organoid alone. BBR effectively attenuated inflammation and restored epithelial barrier integrity by suppressing M1 macrophage polarisation and infiltration, alongside upregulating the expression and organisation of tight junction protein zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1). RNA sequencing and proteomic analysis revealed that BBR disrupted organoid–macrophage interaction by inhibiting chemokine (e.g., C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1 (CXCL1) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF)) release from epithelial cells, thereby reducing macrophage recruitment. Collectively, our study establishes the organoid–macrophage co-culture system as a more physiologically relevant model for studying epithelial–immune interactions and elucidates the multi-target mechanism of BBR, which concurrently modulates epithelial cells, macrophages, and their crosstalk. These findings lay the foundation for further exploration of the therapeutic potential of BBR in inflammatory bowel disease and the development of targeted therapies that regulate cell interactions. Full article
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