The anti-allergic activity of Cymbopogon citratus is mediated via inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B (Nf-Κb) activation

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Camila Alexandrina Figueiredo⁴  Neuza Maria Alcântara-Neves⁴  Lain Carlos Pontes-de-Carvalho⁶  Maria Lenise Silva²  Tania Maria Sarmento Silva¹  Silvana Alves de Souza¹  Eudes da Silva Velozo³  Fabio-Luis Meneses Souza⁵  William Santos Alves⁴  Ryan Santos Costa⁴  Noma Vilany Queiroz Carneiro⁴  Anaque Pires de Oliveira⁵  Raimon Rios⁴  Hugo Bernardino Ferreira Silva⁴  Marta Santos Serafim Machado⁵ 

[1]Departamento de Ciências Moleculares, Laboratório de Bioprospecção Fitoquímica da Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, 52171-900, Pernambuco, Brazil

[2]Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

[3]Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

[4]Departamento de Biorregulação, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Campus do Canela, Salvador, CEP 41110-100, BA, Brazil

[5]Faculdade Adventista da Bahia, Cachoeira, Bahia, Brazil

[6]Centro de pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

关键词: Natural products;    Blomia tropicalis;    Asthma;    Cymbopogon citratus;   

Others  :  1212023
DOI  :  10.1186/s12906-015-0702-8

 received in 2014-02-08, accepted in 2015-05-29,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

The prevalence of allergic diseases such as asthma has significantly increased worldwide, making it a public health concern. There is an urgent need for new anti-inflammatory agents with selective pharmacology and lower toxicity. Plant extracts have been used for centuries in traditional medicine to alleviate inflammatory diseases. In this work, we evaluated the anti-allergic activity of Cymbopogon citratus (Cy), a medicinal herb used by folk medicine to treat asthma.

Methods

We used a murine model of respiratory allergy to the mite Blomia tropicalis (Bt) and evaluated certain parameters known to be altered in this model. A/J mice were sensitized (100 μg/animal s.c.) and challenged (10 μg/animal i.n.) with Bt mite extract and treated with 60, 120 or 180 mg/kg of Cy standardized hexane extract. The parameters evaluated included: cellular infiltrate in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL); eosinophil peroxidase activity (EPO); histopathological examination of the lung; serum levels of specific IgE, IgG1 and IgG2a; Th2 cytokine concentrations in BAL and expression of NF-κB.

Results

Our results showed that oral administration of a Cy hexane extract (especially 180 mg/Kg) reduced the numbers of leukocytes/eosinophils in BAL; the eosinophil peroxidase activity in BAL; the infiltration of leukocytes in lung tissue; the production of mucus in the respiratory tract; the level of IL-4 in BAL and the nuclear expression of NF-κB.

Conclusions

The results presented demonstrate the potential of the Cy hexane extract to modulate allergic asthma; this extract may be an alternative future approach to treat this pathology.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Machado et al.

【 图 表 】

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

Fig. 12.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Bousquet J, Dahl R, Khaltaev N. Global alliance against chronic respiratory diseases. Eur Respir J. 2007; 29:233-9.
• [2]Sade K, Roitman D, Kivity S. Sensitization to dermatophagoides, blomia tropicalis, and other mites in atopic patients. J Asthma. 2010; 47:849-52.
• [3]Medeiros KC, Figueiredo CA, Figueredo TB, Freire KR, Santos FA, Alcantara-Neves NM et al.. Anti-allergic effect of bee pollen phenolic extract and myricetin in ovalbumin-sensitized mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 2008; 119:41-6.
• [4]Wenzel SE, Szefler SJ, Leung DY, Sloan SI, Rex MD, Martin RJ. Bronchoscopic evaluation of severe asthma. Persistent inflammation associated with high dose glucocorticoids. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1997; 156:737-43.
• [5]Castro M, Chaplin DD, Walter MJ, Holtzman MJ. Could asthma be worsened by stimulating the T-helper type 1 immune response? Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2000; 22:143-6.
• [6]Hogan SP, Mould A, Kikutani H, Ramsay AJ, Foster PS. Aeroallergen-induced eosinophilic inflammation, lung damage, and airways hyperreactivity in mice can occur independently of IL-4 and allergen-specific immunoglobulins. J Clin Invest. 1997; 99:1329-39.
• [7]Bateman ED, Hurd SS, Barnes PJ, Bousquet J, Drazen JM, Fitzgerald M et al.. Global strategy for asthma management and prevention: GINA executive summary. Eur Respir J. 2008; 31:143-78.
• [8]Işcan G, Kirimer N, Kürkcüoğlu M, Başer KH, Demirci F. Antimicrobial screening of Mentha piperita essential oils. J Agric Food Chem. 2002; 50:3943-6.
• [9]Baqueiro T, Russo M, Silva VM, Meirelles T, Oliveira PR, Gomes E et al.. Respiratory allergy to Blomia tropicalis: immune response in four syngeneic mouse strains and assessment of a low allergen-dose, short-term experimental model. Respir Res. 2010; 11:51. BioMed Central Full Text
• [10]Cerqueira-Lima AT, Alcântara-Neves NM, de Carvalho LC, Costa RS, Barbosa-Filho JM, Piuvezam M et al.. Effects of Cissampelos sympodialis Eichl. and its alkaloid, warifteine, in an experimental model of respiratory allergy to Blomia tropicalis. Curr Drug Targets. 2010; 11:1458-67.
• [11]Costa RS, Carneiro TC, Cerqueira-Lima AT, Queiroz NV, Alcântara-Neves NM, Pontes-de-Carvalho LC et al.. Ocimum gratissimum Linn. and rosmarinic acid, attenuate eosinophilic airway inflammation in an experimental model of respiratory allergy to Blomia tropicalis. Int Immunopharmacol. 2012; 13:126-34.
• [12]Negrelle RRB, Gomes EC. Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf: chemical composition and biological activities. vol. 9. pp. 80–92. 2007.
• [13]Costa R, Brasil T, Santos C, Santos D, Barreto M, Alcantara-Neves N et al.. Avaliação do uso de remédios caseiros para tratamento de asma em crianças residentes no município de Salvador-BA-Brasil., vol. 20. pp. 594–599. Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia, Curitiba; 2010.
• [14]Lee HJ, Jeong HS, Kim DJ, Noh YH, Yuk DY, Hong JT. Inhibitory effect of citral on NO production by suppression of iNOS expression and NF-kappa B activation in RAW264.7 cells. Arch Pharm Res. 2008; 31:342-9.
• [15]Lowry OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall RJ. Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem. 1951; 193:265-75.
• [16]Shetty S, Udupa S, Udupa L. Evaluation of antioxidant and wound healing effects of alcoholic and aqueous extract of Ocimum sanctum Linn in rats. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2008; 5:95-101.
• [17]Elias JA, Kang MJ, Crothers K, Crouthers K, Homer R, Lee CG. State of the art. Mechanistic heterogeneity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: insights from transgenic mice. Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2006; 3:494-8.
• [18]Fujimoto K, Kubo K, Matsuzawa Y, Sekiguchi M. Eosinophil cationic protein levels in induced sputum correlate with the severity of bronchial asthma. Chest. 1997; 112:1241-7.
• [19]Takano H, Osakabe N, Sanbongi C, Yanagisawa R, Inoue K, Yasuda A et al.. Extract of Perilla frutescens enriched for rosmarinic acid, a polyphenolic phytochemical, inhibits seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in humans. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2004; 229:247-54.
• [20]Engels C, Schieber A, Gänzle M. Sinapic acid derivatives in defatted Oriental mustard (Brassica juncea L.) seed meal extracts using UHPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn and identiFIcation of compounds with antibacterial activity. 2012.
• [21]Francisco V, Figueirinha A, Neves BM, García-Rodríguez C, Lopes MC, Cruz MT et al.. Cymbopogon citratus as source of new and safe anti-inflammatory drugs: bio-guided assay using lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages. J Ethnopharmacol. 2011; 133:818-27.
• [22]Halabi MF, Sheikh BY. Anti-proliferative effect and phytochemical analysis of Cymbopogon citratus extract. Biomed Res Int. 2014; 2014:906239.
• [23]Seo MJ, Kim SJ, Kang TH, Rim HK, Jeong HJ, Um JY et al.. The regulatory mechanism of β-eudesmol is through the suppression of caspase-1 activation in mast cell-mediated inflammatory response. Immunopharmacol Immunotoxicol. 2011; 33:178-85.
• [24]Humbert M, Durham SR, Kimmitt P, Powell N, Assoufi B, Pfister R et al.. Elevated expression of messenger ribonucleic acid encoding IL-13 in the bronchial mucosa of atopic and nonatopic subjects with asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1997; 99:657-65.
• [25]Galli SJ, Tsai M, Piliponsky AM. The development of allergic inflammation. Nature. 2008; 454:445-54.
• [26]Corry DB, Kheradmand F. Induction and regulation of the IgE response. Nature. 1999; 402:B18-23.
• [27]Holgate S, Smith N, Massanari M, Jimenez P. Effects of omalizumab on markers of inflammation in patients with allergic asthma. Allergy. 2009; 64:1728-36.
• [28]Edwards MR, Bartlett NW, Clarke D, Birrell M, Belvisi M, Johnston SL. Targeting the NF-kappaB pathway in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Pharmacol Ther. 2009; 121:1-13.
• [29]Barnes PJ, Adcock IM. Glucocorticoid resistance in inflammatory diseases. Lancet. 2009; 373:1905-17.
• [30]Ruben SM, Narayanan R, Klement JF, Chen CH, Rosen CA. Functional characterization of the NF-kappa B p65 transcriptional activator and an alternatively spliced derivative. Mol Cell Biol. 1992; 12:444-54.