When applied to human monocyte cultures, green tea extract resulted in an increase in neopterin, a potential marker for the activation of cell-mediated immunity. 

Santa Clara University

The leaves of green tea and black tea contain gallic acid, epigallocatechin gallate and quercetin, which are responsible for immunomodulatory activities. 

The impact of tea on the immune system 

"The humoral immune system deals with antigens from pathogens that are freely circulating, or outside the infected cells. Antibodies produced by the B cells will bind to antigens, neutralizing them, or causing lysis (dissolution or destruction of cells by a lysin) or phagocytosis."


"Cellular immunity occurs inside infected cells and is mediated by T lymphocytes. The pathogen's antigens are expressed on the cell surface or on an antigen-presenting cell. Helper T cells release cytokines that help activated T cells bind to the infected cells’ MHC-antigen complex and differentiate the T cell into a cytotoxic T cell. The infected cell then undergoes lysis."

humoral immune response vs cellular immune response

Yang, F., Zhang, Y., Tariq, A., Jiang, X., Ahmed, Z., Zhihao, Z., Idrees, M., Azizullah, A., Adnan, M., & Bussmann, R. W. (2020). Food as medicine: A possible preventive measure against coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Phytotherapy research : PTR, 10.1002/ptr.6770. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.6770

Food as medicine: A possible preventive measure against coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

How green tea extract benefits the immune system 

These are two methods of processing and presenting antigens to human body.

Nanocarriers need to be degraded for encapsulated antigens to trigger cellular immune response, while the surface displayed antigens primarily lead to humoral immune response. 

encapsulated antigen vs surface displayed antigens

To quantify glycyrrhizin's effect on the humoral response, Raphael and Kuttan measured the number of anti-body producing cells and production of antibodies in the spleen, which increased in response to treatment with glycyrrhizin.

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