Abstract
Inflammation is one of the common events in the majority of acute as well as chronic debilitating diseases and represent a chief cause of morbidity in today’s era of modern lifestyle. If unchecked, inflammation leads to development of rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and atherosclerosis along with pulmonary, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases. Inflammation involves a complex network of many mediators, a variety of cells, and execution of multiple pathways. Current therapy for inflammatory diseases is limited to the steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. The chronic use of these drugs is reported to cause severe adverse effects like gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and renal abnormalities. There is a massive need to explore new anti-inflammatory agents with selective action and lesser toxicity. Plants and isolated phytoconstituents are promising and interesting sources of new anti-inflammatories. However, drug development from natural sources has been linked with hurdles like the complex nature of extracts, difficulties in isolation of pure phytoconstituents, and the yield of isolated compounds in minute quantities that is insufficient for subsequent lead development. Although various in-vivo and in-vitro models for anti-inflammatory drug development are available, judicious selection of appropriate animal models is a vital step in the early phase of drug development. Systematic evaluation of phytoconstituents can facilitate the identification and development of potential anti-inflammatory leads from natural sources. The present review describes various techniques of anti-inflammatory drug screening with its advantages and limitations, elaboration on biological targets of phytoconstituents in inflammation and biomarkers for the prediction of adverse effects of anti-inflammatory drugs. The systematic approach proposed through present article for anti-inflammatory drug screening can rationalize the identification of novel phytoconstituents at the initial stage of drug screening programs.
Highlights
Inflammatory diseases are globally identified as the major cause of morbidity across the population [1]
Arachidonic acid (AA) is metabolized via different pathways and form multiple oxygenated products called as eicosanoids
The search for a newer anti-inflammatory agent is an ongoing pursuit and natural products appears to offer a great hope for getting better anti-inflammatory compounds
Summary
Inflammatory diseases are globally identified as the major cause of morbidity across the population [1]. Treatment of the chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases is still a challenge due to lack of safe and effective drugs [2]. Finding a safe and effective drug to control inflammation has been a challenge and many animal models have been developed for the evaluation of drugs having anti-inflammatory properties. Evaluating phytoconstituents in the in-vivo animal models has been a proof of the concept and mainstay of drug development program for the disease specific anti-inflammatory property. This review include an outline of the inflammatory process, the animal models used to study the etiopathogenesis of inflammation in general along with their merits and demerits for the pharmacological evaluation of an anti-inflammatory drug discovery precisely from natural origin
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