Capparis Spinosa L. promotes anti-inflammatory response in vitro through the control of cytokine gene expression in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Mouna Moutia,Khadija El Azhary,Anass Elouaddari,Norddine Habti,Fouad Seghrouchni,Abdellah Al Jahid,Abdallah Badou,Jamal Jamal Eddine

doi:10.1186/s12865-016-0164-x

Abstract

BackgroundCapparis Spinosa L. is an aromatic plant growing wild in dry regions around the Mediterranean basin. Capparis Spinosa was shown to possess several properties such as antioxidant, antifungal, and anti-hepatotoxic actions. In this work, we aimed to evaluate immunomodulatory properties of Capparis Spinosa leaf extracts in vitro on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy individuals.ResultsUsing MTT assay, we identified a range of Capparis Spinosa doses, which were not toxic. Unexpectedly, we found out that Capparis Spinosa aqueous fraction exhibited an increase in cell metabolic activity, even though similar doses did not affect cell proliferation as shown by CFSE. Interestingly, Capparis Spinosa aqueous fraction appeared to induce an overall anti-inflammatory response through significant inhibition of IL-17 and induction of IL-4 gene expression when PBMCs were treated with the non toxic doses of 100 and/or 500 μg/ml. Phytoscreening analysis of the used Capparis Spinosa preparations showed that these contain tannins; sterols, alkaloids; polyphenols and flavonoids. Surprisingly, quantification assays showed that our Capparis Spinosa preparation contains low amounts of polyphenols relative to Capparis Spinosa used in other studies. This Capparis Spinosa also appeared to act as a weaker scavenging free radical agent as evidenced by DPPH radical scavenging test. Finally, polyphenolic compounds including catechin, caffeic acid, syringic acid, rutin and ferulic acid were identified by HPLC, in the Capparis spinosa preparation.ConclusionAltogether, these findings suggest that our Capparis Spinosa preparation contains interesting compounds, which could be used to suppress IL-17 and to enhance IL-4 gene expression in certain inflammatory situations. Other studies are underway in order to identify the compound(s) underlying this effect.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12865-016-0164-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Capparis Spinosa L. is an aromatic plant growing wild in dry regions around the Mediterranean basin
Cell viability and metabolic activity upon treatment with Capparis Spinosa In order to test whether C.S. preparations could contain compounds that have the ability to regulate immune system cells and eventually suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines, we started by assessing cell toxicity
Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were incubated with increasing doses of either

Summary

Introduction

Capparis Spinosa L. is an aromatic plant growing wild in dry regions around the Mediterranean basin. Th17 cells produce mainly IL-17A and IL-17F and take a major part in the clearance of extracellular bacteria and fungi, due to their capacity to recruit and activate Neutrophils [5] They promote the pathogenesis of cancer [6], several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases [7], such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis and contact dermatitis [8, 9]. New compounds could have a great interest, in several pathophysiological situations such as autoimmunity [7] and cancer [6], if they are able to suppress the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-17 These molecules could be synthetic or natural, extracted from plants

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