Natural Compounds as Integrative Therapy for Liver Protection against Inflammatory and Carcinogenic Mechanisms: From Induction to Molecular Biology Advancement.

The liver is exposed to several harmful substances that bear the potential to cause excessive liver damage ranging from hepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to extreme cases of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver ailments have been effectively treated from very old times with Chinese medicinal herbal formulations and later also applied by controlled trials in Japan. However, these traditional practices have been hardly well characterized in the past till in the last decades when more qualified studies have been carried out. Modern advances have given rise to specific molecular targets which are specifically good candidates for affecting the intricate mechanisms that play a role at the molecular level. These therapeutic regimens that mainly affect the progression of the disease by inhibiting the gene expression levels or by blocking essential molecular pathways or releasing cytokines may prove to play a vital role in minimizing the tissue damage. This review, therefore, tries to throw light upon the variation in the therapies for the treatment of benign and malignant liver disease from ancient times to the current date. Nonetheless, clinical research exploring the effectiveness of herbal medicines in the treatment of benign chronic liver diseases as well as prevention and treatment of HCC is still warranted.

Effect of VBC-1814/7J, a poly-phytocompound, on a non-infectious model of pharyngitis.

Pharyngitis presents as an inflammation of the oropharynx, and clinical examination often shows evidence of nasopharyngitis. In numerous cases the condition occurs as a self-limiting illness of non-infectious aetiology, whose clinical management remains a matter for debate given the inappropriateness of antibiotics, the reported worsening following steroid use and the recent discouragement of the use of Chinese herbal medicine. The aim of the present study was thus to test VBC-1814/7J, a poly-phytocompound with known anti-inflammatory and immune-response enhancing properties, in an experimental model of non-infectious pharyngitis. Experimental non-infectious pharyngitis was induced by applying a pyridine solution to the surface of the pharyngeal mucosa in rats that were either normally fed (group A) or fed VBC-1814/7J three days prior to and three days subsequent to the induction of pharyngitis (group B). Healthy rats treated with topical saline were used as a control (group C). At time-points of 0, one hour, one day and three days sacrifices were carried out and microscopic examination, Evans blue (EB) dye extravasation and tissue concentrations of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6 and mRNA of α- and ß-defensins were studied. As compared with group C, group A showed significant microscopic damage, EB extravasation, and increases in the levels of TNF-α and IL-6, as well as in the mRNA of three defensins (P<0.001) on the third day of observation. VBC-1814/7J significantly mitigated these microscopic and inflammatory markers while allowing a prompter and wider defensin reaction (P<0.05 vs. group A). These data suggest that VBC-1814/7J, as demonstrated in earlier studies, has the potential to address non-infectious pharyngitis in clinical practice.

Beneficial effect of refined red palm oil on lipid peroxidation and monocyte tissue factor in HCV-related liver disease: a randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: A large amount of endotoxin can be detected in the peripheral venous blood of patients with liver cirrhosis, contributing to the pathogenesis of hepatotoxicity because of its role in oxidative stress. The present study aimed to test the effect of the supplementation with red palm oil (RPO), which is a natural oil obtained from oil palm fruit (Elaeis guineensis) rich in natural fat-soluble tocopherols, tocotrienols and carotenoids, on lipid peroxidation and endotoxemia with plasma endotoxin-inactivating capacity, proinflammatory cytokines profile, and monocyte tissue factor in patients with chronic liver disease. METHODS: The study group consisted of sixty patients (34 males and 26 females; mean age 62 years, range 54-75) with Child A/B, genotype 1 HCV-related cirrhosis without a history of ethanol consumption, randomly enrolled into an 8-week oral daily treatment with either vitamin E or RPO. All patients had undergone an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy 8 months before, and 13 out of them showed esophageal varices. RESULTS: Both treatments significantly decreased erythrocyte malondialdehyde and urinary isoprostane output, only RPO significantly affected macrophage-colony stimulating factor and monocyte tissue factor. Liver ultrasound imaging did not show any change. CONCLUSIONS: RPO beneficially modulates oxidative stress and, not least, downregulates macrophage/monocyte inflammatory parameters. RPO can be safely advised as a valuable nutritional implementation tool in the management of chronic liver diseases.

Effect of aging and oxidative stress on elongation factor-2 in hypothalamus and hypophysis.

The hypothalamic-hypophysis system (HHS) secretes peptide hormones whose synthesis requires the integrity of the translation machinery. As the organisms age, a considerable diminution of the protein synthesis takes place in several tissues. Among the possible causes of the decline of translation in old animals are the modifications of elongation factor-2 (eEF-2). We studied whether the level of this protein was affected in the HHS in old animals. The effects of aging are compared to those of an oxidant compound (cumene hydroperoxide) administered to young rats. The results indicate that oxidative stress could be involved in the alterations of eEF-2, which forms adducts with malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE). The alterations of eEF-2 levels, secondary to lipid peroxidation and adduct formation with these aldehydes could contribute to the suboptimal hormone production from these tissues during aging. Besides eEF-2, proteomic analysis shows that several other proteins are affected.

Effects of short-term supplementation with folic acid on different oxidative stress parameters in patients with hypertension.

Oxidative stress seems to play an important role in the pathophysiology of essential hypertension. Due to its antioxidant features, we studied the protective action of folic acid in hypertensive patients, their food supplemented for 2 weeks with this vitamin. Several oxidative stress parameters were measured in the serum of these patients. The results show that folic acid supplementation improves levels of oxidative stress markers in individuals with hypertension, overall in those patients whose initial parameter values were highest.