5-Aminolevulinic acid regulates the inflammatory response and all immune reaction

Author links open overlay panel MasayukiFujino^ab, YoshiakiNishio^a, HidenoriIto^c, TohruTanaka^c, Xiao-KangLi^a

1. A Division of Transplantation Immunology, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
2. B AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan
3. C SBI Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Highlights:

• 5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is utilized as a precursor of a photosensitizer for performing a photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) and photodynamic therapy (PDT).
• 5-ALA with sodium ferrous citrate (SFC) elicited with the expression of heme oxygenase (HO)-1
• 5-ALA with SFC attenuates inflammatory responses and all reactive immune reaction.

Conclusion

5-ALA clearly exerts immunological effects that may potentially be used to alter the immune responses in autoimmune pathologies, allografting and GvHD (Table 2). Although the impact of 5-ALA treatment in cancer has been well characterized, the use of 5-ALA for both immunological diseases and allografting requires further investigation (Fig. 3). Specifically, whether or not 5-ALA can be administered in high enough doses to exert an immunosuppressive effect remains unclear, however, this is an interesting new treatment option and further research in the area should be encouraged. Taken together, these results have important implications for the potential use of 5-ALA/SFC in the treatment of sclerodermatous chronic GvHD and SSc in humans.

Journal Abstract: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567576915302022