FIG 10.

Astrakurkurone was found to stimulate the CD4⁺ T cells of active VL patients. PBMCs were isolated from blood of VL patients and treated with 2.5 μg/ml of astrakurkurone. Golgiplug was added 6 h before harvesting the cells to arrest the cytokine secretion. Interestingly, astrakurkurone induced the proliferation of CD4⁺ T cells of PBMCs of active VL patients in vitro in the presence of Leishmania-crude soluble antigen (25 μg/ml) for 12 h. Data are representative of results of 5 independent experiments.