Abstract
Several species of the family Bromeliaceae are characterized by the production of proteases in unusual amounts, especially in fruits. Bromelain, an extract rich in cysteine endopeptidases obtained from Ananas comosus L., and a few other proteases have been used as anti-inflammatory agents for some years, but bromelain is still mainly being used as alternative and/or complementary therapy to the treatment with glucocorticoids, nonsteroidal antirheumatics, and immunomodulators. In this study, the anti-inflammatory action of a partially purified extract from Pseudananas macrodontes (Morr.) Harms fruits (PPE(Pm)) is presented, whose main components are cysteine endopeptidases. The effect of PPE(Pm) was assessed in carrageenan-induced and serotonin-induced rat paw edema, as well as in the cotton pellet granuloma model. Doses with equal proteolytic activity of PPE(Pm) and bromelain produced significantly similar anti-inflammatory responses in the acute inflammatory models assayed, supporting the hypothesis that proteolytic activity could be responsible for the anti-inflammatory action. On the contrary, comparable anti-inflammatory effects of PPE(Pm) and bromelain in the chronic inflammatory assay required a much lower proteolytic activity content of PPE(Pm), which could be due to a differential affinity for the protein target involved in this process.
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