Combination of Eucheuma Cottonii and Corticosteroids has a Superior Immunomodulatory Effect on Asthma

Abstract

Asthma prevalence has been increasing globally which is commonly treated using corticosteroid as gold standard treatment. However, corticosteroids have adverse effects and cases of corticosteroid-resistant asthma are emerging. Eucheuma cottonii (EC) has been shown to potentially attenuate inflammatory response in type I hypersensitivity. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Eucheuma cottonii extract and methylprednisolone combination on IL-4, IL-10, and histamine levels in Ovalbumin-induced asthma BALB/c mice. Thirty female BALB/c mice were randomly assigned to 6 groups : (1) Sham; (2) Ovalbumin-induced asthma mice; (3) Ovalbumin-induced asthma mice treated with methylprednisolone (MP) 0.24 mg/day; (4) Ovalbumin-induced asthma mice treated with EC extract 300 mg/kgBW/day; (5) Ovalbumin-induced asthma mice treated with combination of both. Treatments were given respectively for 7 days. Plasma IL-4, IL-10, and histamine levels were measured using ELISA method. The combination group showed both the lowest IL-4 levels (89.30 ± 1.37 pg/ml) and the highest IL-10 levels (487.03 ± 20.57 pg/ml) compared to other asthma-like mouse groups (p = 0.001). No significant difference was observed in histamine levels among all treatments (p > 0.05). The administration of a combination of methylprednisolone and Eucheuma cottonii extract significantly affected plasma IL-4 and IL-10 levels compared to monotherapies. However, there was no significant difference in plasma histamine levels compared to monotherapies.