Nigella A ameliorates inflammation and intestinal flora imbalance in DSS induced colitis mice

Xingjiang Hu,Yunliang Zheng,Xi Hu,Nana Xu,Xi Yang,Qiao Zhang

doi:10.1186/s13568-020-01114-3

Xingjiang Hu, Yunliang Zheng + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13568-020-01114-3

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Abstract

Nigella A, also named Sieboldianoside A, has been extracted from many kinds of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), such as Nigella glandulifera, Stauntonia chinensis DC., and the leaves of Acanthopanax sieboldianus. Nigella A exhibited potential analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and antioxidant activities. However, whether Nigella A could treat ulcerative colitis (UC) is still unknown. As saponins always be regarded as the kinds of ingredients that could regulate immunity and intestinal flora. This research aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of Nigella A on UC and explore its effect on intestinal flora. We noted that Nigella A and Sulfasalazine (SASP) could significantly improve the signs and symptoms, alleviate colonic pathological injury in DSS-induced mice. The changing of many specific bacterial genus such as Lactobacillus, Porphyromonadaceae, Bacteroides and Escherichia might closely related to the recovery of intestinal inflammatory response. This study initially confirmed the therapeutic effect of Nigella A and SASP on DSS-induced colitis by improving the diversity of intestinal microbial composition. Nigella A has the potential to be developed for the treatment of UC and other disorders related to the imbalance of intestinal flora.

Highlights

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an idiopathic disease that affects the ileum, rectum and colon, including ulcerative colitis (UC) and crohn’s disease (CD)
Nigella A relieved the symptoms of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)‐induced UC mice During continuous administration, mice of the control group grew well and slowly gained weight, while mice of DSS group and each drug intervention group lost weight, among which the DSS group had the highest degree of decline at the 8th day
The Disease activity index (DAI) scores were significantly increased in mice treated with Nigella A and SASP (Fig. 1c)

Summary

Introduction

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an idiopathic disease that affects the ileum, rectum and colon, including ulcerative colitis (UC) and crohn’s disease (CD). The seeds of Nigella glandulifera Freyn et Sint (N. glandulifera), which were known as black cumin (black seeds) and were widely used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of numerous inflammatory diseases (Zheng et al 2020). The total saponins from N. glandulifera (TSN) exhibited potential analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and antioxidant activities. Our previous results revealed that saponins were the principal active components of N. glandulifera with the highest content (64.5%) and Nigella A ( named Sieboldianoside A) is a major oleanane triterpenoid saponin isolated from N. glandulifera (Zheng et al 2020). We speculated that it could be used to treat a variety of inflammation-related diseases by regulating flora and immune

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