Papers of the Week

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease that causes severe pain and infertility. However, the available treatments for EMS are limited. SCM-198, a synthetic form of leonurine, possesses various abilities, including anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-fibrotic, and anti-proliferative effects. Previous studies have shown that SCM-198 can inhibit the growth of ectopic lesions, but the specific mechanism remains unknown. The results of our studies indicate that SCM-198 significantly suppresses the endometriotic growth of EMS mice. Enrichment analysis of RNA-seq indicates that SCM-198 is involved in T cell differentiation, activation, cytokine production, stimulation of chemotaxis, and migration. Flow cytometry reveals that SCM-198 reverses the decreased proportions of IFN-γ + T cells and CCR5 + T cells in ectopic lesions. RNA-seq analysis shows that SCM-198 enhances the expression of CCL5 in the ectopic lesions, and western blot is conducted to verify this conclusion both in vivo and in vitro. These findings demonstrate that SCM-198 reverses the decreased proportions of IFN-γ + T cells and CCR5 + T cells, alleviating the growth of mouse ectopic lesions, and the changes in CCR5 + T cells are likely due to the reduced expression of CCL5.