Observations placeholder
Liquorice and hepatitis B
Identifier
012297
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
For most people this will seem like gobblydook, but basically they have ascertained that the anecdotal use of liquorice to treat hep B has considerable scientific rationale
A description of the experience
J Hepatol. 1994 Oct;21(4):601-9.
Effects of glycyrrhizin on hepatitis B surface antigen: a biochemical and morphological study.
Takahara T1, Watanabe A, Shiraki K. Third Department of Internal Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan.
Glycyrrhizin, a major component of a herb (licorice), has been widely used to treat chronic hepatitis B in Japan. This substance improves liver function with occasional complete recovery from hepatitis; its effects on the secretion of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) were examined in vitro.
Glycyrrhizin suppressed the secretion of HBsAg and accumulated it dose-dependently in PLC/PRF/5 cells. Its action was further analyzed and determined in the HBsAg-expression system using the varicella-zoster virus. Glycyrrhizin suppressed the secretion of HBsAg, resulting in its accumulation in the cytoplasmic vacuoles in the Golgi apparatus area. HBsAg labeled with 35S-methionine and cysteine accumulated in the cells and its secretion was suppressed dose-dependently in glycyrrhizin-treated culture. The secreted HBsAg was modified by N-linked and O-linked glycans but its sialylation was inhibited dose-dependently by glycyrrhizin. Thus glycyrrhizin suppressed the intracellular transport of HBsAg at the trans-Golgi area after O-linked glycosylation and before its sialylation. HBsAg particles were mainly observed on the cell surface in the glycyrrhizin-treated culture but not in the untreated culture. This suggests that asialylation of HBsAg particles resulted in the novel surface nature of glycyrrhizin-treated HBsAg particles. We elucidated the unique mechanism of action of glycyrrhizin on HBsAg processing, intracellular transport, and secretion.
PMID: 7814808
The source of the experience
PubMedConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
HepatitisHepatitis virus infection
Liver disease
Viral infection