Abstract
Liver diseases represent a threat to human health and are a significant cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a progressive and chronic hepatic inflammatory disease, which may lead to severe complications. Concanavalin A (Con A)-induced hepatic injury is regarded as an appropriate experimental model for investigating the pathology and mechanisms involved in liver injury mediated by immune cells as well as T cell-related liver disease. Despite the advances in modern medicine, the only available strategies to treat AIH, include the use of steroids either solely or with immunosuppressant drugs. Unfortunately, this currently available treatment is associated with significant side-effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need for safe and effective drugs to replace and/or supplement those in current use. Natural products have been utilized for treating liver disorders and have become a promising therapy for various liver disorders. In this review, the natural compounds and herbal formulations as well as extracts and/or fractions with protection against liver injury caused by Con A and the underlying possible mechanism(s) of action are reviewed. A total of 53 compounds from different structural classes are discussed and over 97 references are cited. The goal of this review is to attract the interest of pharmacologists, natural product researchers, and synthetic chemists for discovering novel drug candidates for treating immune-mediated liver injury.
Highlights
The plant lectin, concanavalin A (Con A) separated from Canavalia ensiformis is known as a T-lymphocytes activator
Con A stimulates T-cell causing a release of several cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and interleukins (ILs), that maintain inflammatory and immuno-stimulatory processes and may arouse acute toxicity [2]
Con A-activation of T-cell leads to cytokine-induced hepatic injury, which can be assessed by electron microscopy of the liver and by determining the plasma levels of transaminases [1,3]
Summary
The plant lectin, concanavalin A (Con A) separated from Canavalia ensiformis (jack bean) is known as a T-lymphocytes activator. Con A-activation of T-cell leads to cytokine-induced hepatic injury, which can be assessed by electron microscopy of the liver and by determining the plasma levels of transaminases [1,3] This injury is characterized by severe liver inflammation and massive hepatocyte apoptosis/necrosis [4,5,6]. This injury is characterized by severe liver inf2laofm33mation and massive hepatocyte apoptosis/necrosis [4,5,6].
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