Soluble carboxymethyl-b-1,3-glucan (CMG), a possible ligand for scavenger receptors, has macrophage-activating action but lacks the granulomatose inflammatory side effect: it is a promising immunomodulator that may mitigate the severity of sepsis. This motivated us to study in rats the effect of CMG (25 mg/kg), injected into the tail vein at 48 and 24 h prior to the administration of 5 mg/kg Escherichia coli O127.B8 endotoxin on survival, hemodynamic condition, and, in vitro, on the chemiluminescence of PMNs and macrophages, and on macrophagal tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production. Acetylated low density lipoprotein (AcLDL) clearance in vivo and in vitro binding to macrophages was used to study scavenger receptor function. In the nonpretreated group 9 of 10 rats died during the first 24 h after endotoxin, but all CMG-pretreated rats survived. CMG-pretreatment prevented severe decreases in cardiac output and blood pressure after endotoxin. Chemiluminescence of macrophages and PMNs from CMG-pretreated rats was about two times less (p < .05) than that from nonpretreated ones; the endotoxin induced TNF production by macrophages also decreased. Pretreatment with CMG increased, but coinjection of CMG and AcLDL decreased the AcLDL clearance, while coinjection of endotoxin and AcLDL decreased the survival rate. In vitro AcLDL uptake by macrophages decreased after coinjection with CMG. Our results thus showed that CMG was protective in rat endotoxin shock, which seemed partly connected with enhancement of endotoxin clearance through scavenger receptors and to decreased TNF production.

Current concepts concerning the main functional phenotypes of mononuclear phagocytes are systematized, molecular mechanisms of their formation are considered, and the functional polarization concept of macrophages is critically analyzed. Mechanisms of macrophage priming activation mediated by pattern recognition receptors TLR, NLR, RLR, and CLR are described, and the features of each phenotype acquired via various pattern recognition receptors are emphasized. It is concluded that there is a huge variety of proinflammatory phenotypes from highly to poorly polarized ones. Thus the widespread notion of “classical activation” of macrophage concerns just a particular case of proinflammatory phenotype formation.

Mycobacterium tuberculosisis an intracellular pathogen that persists within macrophages of the human host. One approach to improving the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) is the targeted delivery of antibiotics to macrophages using ligands to macrophage receptors. The moxifloxacin-conjugated dansylated carboxymethylglucan (M-DCMG) conjugate was prepared by chemically linking dansylcadaverine (D) and moxifloxacin (M) to carboxymethylglucan (CMG), a known ligand of macrophage scavenger receptors. The targeted delivery to macrophages and the antituberculosis activity of the conjugate M-DCMG were studied in vitro and in vivo. Using fluorescence microscopy, fluorimetry, and the J774 macrophage cell line, M-DCMG was shown to accumulate in macrophages through scavenger receptors in a dose-dependent (1 to 50 μg/ml) manner. After intravenous administration of M-DCMG into C57BL/6 mice, the fluorescent conjugate was concentrated in the macrophages of the lungs and spleen. Analyses of the pharmacokinetics of the conjugate demonstrated that M-DCMG was more rapidly accumulated and more persistent in tissues than free moxifloxacin. Importantly, therapeutic studies of mycobacterial growth in C57BL/6 mice showed that the M-DCMG conjugate was significantly more potent than free moxifloxacin.