Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Inhibition of TNF-α and IL-1 by compounds from selected plants for rheumatoid arthritis therapy: In vivo and in silico studies

Shengkang Xu^1,2, Hao Peng¹ , Na Wang³, Meng Zhao²

¹Department of Orthopedics, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430060; ²Department of Orthopedics; ³Department of Neurosurgery, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei 442000, China.

For correspondence:- Hao Peng Email: penghao5868@163.com Tel:+8613971482808

Accepted: 20 January 2018 Published: 28 February 2018

Citation: Xu S, Peng H, Wang N, Zhao M. Inhibition of TNF-α and IL-1 by compounds from selected plants for rheumatoid arthritis therapy: In vivo and in silico studies. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(2):277-285 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i2.12

© 2018 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the inhibitory activities of herbal compounds from Curcuma longa, Sophora japonica and Camellia sinensis against tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) using in vivo and in silico tools.

Methods: The extracts of the medicinal herbs (Curcuma longa, Sophora japonica and Camellia sinensis) were evaluated for immune-modulatory activities based using neutrophil oxidative burst assay. The compounds present in the medicinal herbs were screened for their inhibitory effects against TNF-α (PDB ID: 2AZ5) and IL-1 (PDB ID: 2L5X) using Molegro Virtual Docker 6.0 (MVD). The stabilities of the top docking poses were confirmed by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation run for 20 nanoseconds (ns).

Results: The herbal compounds exerted strong inhibitory effects against TNF-α (PDB ID: 2AZ5) and IL-1 (PDB ID: 2L5X), implying their therapeutic potential for use in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Of the compounds, curcumin diglucoside and curcumin monoglucoside showed the strongest inhibitory effects on monocytes, with inhibitory levels of 82.75 and 81.34 %, respectively, while eugenin had the weakest inhibitory activity (11.12 %). In addition, molecular docking scores were consistent with the in vivo results, and revealed strong inhibitory effects of curcumin diglucoside and curcumin monoglucoside against TNF-α and IL-1.

Conclusion: Herbal compounds present in Curcuma longa, Sophora japonica and Camellia sinensis possess strong inhibitory effects against the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1. Thus, these compounds have therapeutic potentials that can be exploited for the treatment of RA

Keywords: Curcuma longa, Sophora japonica, Camellia sinensis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Cytokines, TNF-α, IL-1, Immuno-modulation, Molecular docking