OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of fuzheng quxie granule (FQG) on immune cells and cytokines in populations with respiratory viral infection.

METHODSFifty-nine patients were randomly divided into 3 groups, that is, 19 patients treated with conventional western medicine (WM) plus FQG in the treated group, 19 patients treated with conventional western medicine alone in the WM group, and 21 patients treated with FQG alone in the TCM group. The levels of T lymphocyte subsets, interleukine-2,4,6,10 (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-gamma (INF-gamma) and Th1/Th2 were determined before treatment, and at the end of 1st and 2nd week of treatment respectively.

RESULTSBefore treatment, levels of TNF-alpha, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10 and INF-gamma in all patients were significantly higher than normal range (P < 0.05). After being treated for 1 week, the levels of serum TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-10 were significantly decreased in all groups (P < 0.05), serum IL-2 and INF-gamma decreased to the normal level in the WM group, but in the treated and the FQG group by the end of the 2nd week, the two indexes still remained at the rather higher level (P < 0.05). The ratio of Th1 and Th2 in the treated group and the FQG group increased significantly by the end of 2nd week, reached the level higher than that in the WM group and that before treatment (P < 0.05). No significant difference in, T lymphocytes subsets (CD3+ , CD4+ , CD8+) and percentage of B and NK cells before and after treatment was found in all the 3 groups.

CONCLUSIONFQG can positively regulate the immune function of patients with respiratory tract viral infection in certain degree.