绿茶有效治疗变应性鼻炎的神经性假说
Hypothetical neurogenic mechanism by which green tea drink benefits patients with allergic rhinitis

在变应性鼻炎的发生发展过程中，神经机制发挥着重要的调控作用。神经肽能诱发典型的变应性鼻炎症状，并最终被中性内肽酶（NEP）降解。既往研究发现饮用绿茶能有效缓解变应性鼻炎的临床症状，然而其机制并不明确。我们结合文献，从神经性炎症的角度提出了绿茶有效治疗变应性鼻炎的假说，即绿茶有效成分通过增强NEP活性，从而增加神经肽的降解速度，最终抑制了变应性鼻炎的临床症状。
Allergic rhinitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the nasal mucosa. The neurogenic inflammation causedby neuropeptides plays an important role in the process of allergic rhinitis. Neuropeptides produce the typical symptoms ofallergic rhinitis, and are finally degraded and inactivated by neutral endopeptidase ( NEP ). Drinking green tea helps reducethe symptoms of allergic rhinitis; however, the mechanism of this phenomenon needs further study. Researches have shownthat the components in green tea can induce the NEP activity of human neuroblastoma cells. Based on this discovery, wehypothesize that the NEP activity is up-regulated by effective components in green tea, which speeds up the degradation ofneuropeptides in the nose tissue and as a result lessens the responses of allergic rhinitis