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Alkaloids potential health Benefits and toxicity
Published in Quan V. Vuong, Utilisation of Bioactive Compounds from Agricultural and Food Waste, 2017
Renée A. Street, Gerhard Prinsloo, Lyndy J. McGaw
The well-known alkaloid morphine used in pain treatment, also showed expression of cannabinoid receptor 1 and CB2-R in culture cells, indicating that it may be involved in abnormal immune function (Zhang et al. 2012). Similarly cocaine, its metabolites and related alkaloids from Erythroxylon coca were found to be responsible for suppression of the immune response at doses of 15 to 60 mg/kg (Watson et al. 1983). The alkaloids (20 S)-(bennzamido)-3b-(N,N-dimethyamino)-pregnane and (20 S)-(bennzamido)-pregnane-3-one, pachysanaximine A and 20a-diacetamido-5a- pregnane were isolated from Sarcococca saligna and the immunomodulatory potential was found to be between IC50 = 10 mg/ml (95 per cent) and 1.6 mg/ml (Iqbal et al. 2015). Tomatine from Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium showed antigen-specific IFN-ɣ secretion and cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity in vitro which were both significantly enhanced compared to responses detected from similarly stimulated splenocytes from naive and tomatine-saline-immunised control mice (Heal et al. 2001). A hot water infusion of the root bark of Cissampelos sympodialis is used traditionally to treat several inflammatory disorders, including asthma, a chronic inflammatory allergic disease. The anti-allergic and immunoregulatory properties of this plant inhibit the airway hyper-reactivity and lung remodeling. The most active compound was found to be warifteine (Bezerra-Santos et al. 2012, Costa et al. 2013). The fruits of Morus alba have been traditionally used as a tonic to boost the immune responses. Five alkaloids isolated from the plant namely 5-(hydroxymethyl)-1H-pyrrole-2- carboxaldehyde, 2-formyl-1H-pyrrole-1-butanoicacid, 2-formyl-5-(hydroxymethyl)- 1H-pyrrole-1-butanoicacid, 2-formyl-5-(methoxymethyl)-1H-pyrrole-1-butanoic acid and Morrole A and two compounds 2-formyl-5-(hydroxymethyl)-1H-pyrrole-1- butanoicacid and 2-formyl-5-(methoxymethyl)-1H-pyrrole-1-butanoic acid showed macrophage activity through enhancement of nitric oxide, TNF-α and IL-12 production and the stimulation of phagocytic activity (Kim et al. 2013). Sinomenine, is an alkaloid extracted from Sinomenium acutum, suppressed the production of cytokines and the Th1 and Th2 immune responses (Feng et al. 2006). The immunomodulatory effects of punarnavine (40 mg/kg body weight) were found to enhance the total white blood cell count and plague-forming cells. Punarnavine also showed enhanced proliferation of splenocytes, thymocytes and bone marrow cells and induced elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 (Manu and Kuttan 2009).
Endogenous neuroprotection after perinatal hypoxia-ischaemia: the resilient developing brain
Published in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2019
Joanne O. Davidson, Simerdeep K. Dhillon, Guido Wassink, Kelly Q. Zhou, Laura Bennet, Alistair J. Gunn
The endocannabinoid system is an intercellular communication network with important homeostatic functions (Alonso-Alconada et al. 2011). The main endogenous receptors are cannabinoid receptor type I and cannabinoid receptor type II. Cannabinoid receptor type I (CB1) is found extensively in the brain, mainly on presynaptic terminals of neurons. However, the CB1 receptor also mediates most of the psychoactive effects of cannabinoids, which may limit its therapeutic use. The CB2 receptor is found on cells of lymphoid origin such as B and T lymphocytes, natural killer cells, mastocytes, macrophages and monocytes as well as on microglia, the brain’s inflammatory cells, and mediates systemic anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive actions, as reviewed in (Ashton and Glass 2007).