Convincing mechanistic reports on the immunomodulatory action of erythromycin and clindamycin are scarce, rarely based on experiments in freshly isolated human immune cells, and potentially contradicting. Moreover, direct immunomodulatory effects of both antibiotics have never been demonstrated in vivo. The Centre for Human Drug Research Biomarker lab has studied in depth the immunomodulatory actions of erythromycin and clindamycin in vitro. These in vitro experiments on primary human immune cells demonstrated that both erythromycin and clindamycin are able to modulate the immune response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells upon stimulation with different immune triggers such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and polyI:C. In this current study the in vitro work will be translated to an in vivo study where it will be made into an intradermal LPS skin challenge model in healthy volunteers.
Erythromycin and clindamycin are believed to have anti-inflammatory aspects. This study investigates the possible anti-inflammatory effects of erythromycin and clindamycin.