The long-term effects of a kampo medicine, juzentaihoto, on maintenance of antibody titer in elderly people after influenza vaccination

Ikuo Saiki; Keiichi Koizumi; Hirozo Goto; Akiko Inujima; Takao Namiki; Masaki Raimura; Toshiaki Kogure; Takeshi Tatsumi; Hiroki Inoue; Shinya Sakai; Hiroshi Oka; Makoto Fujimoto; Hiroaki Hikiami; Hiroaki Sakurai; Naotoshi Shibahara; Yutaka Shimada; Hideki Origasa

doi:10.1155/2013/568074

The long-term effects of a kampo medicine, juzentaihoto, on maintenance of antibody titer in elderly people after influenza vaccination

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013:2013:568074. doi: 10.1155/2013/568074. Epub 2013 Nov 18.

Authors

Ikuo Saiki¹, Keiichi Koizumi², Hirozo Goto³, Akiko Inujima², Takao Namiki⁴, Masaki Raimura⁵, Toshiaki Kogure⁶, Takeshi Tatsumi⁷, Hiroki Inoue⁸, Shinya Sakai⁹, Hiroshi Oka¹⁰, Makoto Fujimoto¹¹, Hiroaki Hikiami¹¹, Hiroaki Sakurai¹², Naotoshi Shibahara², Yutaka Shimada¹¹, Hideki Origasa¹³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Pathogenic Biochemistry, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
² Division of Kampo Diagnostics, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
³ Department of Kampo Medicine, Hokusei Hospital, Toyama, Japan.
⁴ Department of Japanese-Oriental (Kampo) Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan.
⁵ AKIBA Clinic of Traditional Medicine, Chiba, Japan.
⁶ Department of Japanese Oriental Medicine, Gunma Central & General Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
⁷ Department of Japanese Oriental Medicine, Gunma Central & General Hospital, Gunma, Japan ; Department of Internal Medicine, Ninosawa Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
⁸ Department of Japanese Oriental (Kampo) Medicine, Iizuka Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan.
⁹ Tonami Miwa Hospital, Toyama, Japan.
¹⁰ Department of Kampo Medicine, Bayside Clinic, Kanagawa, Japan.
¹¹ Department of Japanese-Oriental (Kampo) Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Japan.
¹² Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Japan.
¹³ Department of Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Japan.

Abstract

We have performed a broad-ranging analysis of the adjuvant effect of a Kampo medicine, juzentaihoto (JTT), on influenza vaccination in a multicenter randomized controlled trial. In this study, the enhancing effect of JTT on antibody titer after influenza vaccination was studied for 28 weeks in elderly people who were in the high-risk group for influenza infection. In total, 91 subjects over 65 years old were recruited from four long-term-care facilities located in Chiba, Gunma, and Toyama prefectures in Japan. Participants were randomly assigned to the JTT and the control groups. Blood samples were taken at 4 weeks before vaccination, at the time of vaccination, and then at 4, 8, 12, and 24 weeks after vaccination. The hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers against A/California/7/2009 (H1N1), A/Victoria/210/2009 (H3N2), and B/Brisbane/60/2008 were then manually measured. A significant increase in HI titer against H3N2 was observed at week 8 after vaccination in the JTT group compared with the control group (P = 0.0229), and the HI titer of the JTT group significantly increased from 4 to 24 weeks (P = 0.0468), compared with the control group. In conclusion, our results indicated that JTT increased and prolonged antibody production against A/Victoria/210/2009 (H3N2), in particular, after influenza vaccination.