Anti inflammatory role of Cinammomum verum on Collagen Type-II induced arthritis in BALB/c Mice

Abstract

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease having a global importance. The role of bioactive plant compounds and their role as an anti inflammatory have been described earlier. Cinnamomum verum is a plant indegenious to the subcontinent. The objective of this study was to characterize the bioactive components in Cinnamomum verum extracts, to isolate cinnamaldehyde and later show its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative function in vivo and in vitro. Cinnamaldehyde was found to be present in dried extracts of Cinnamomum verum, characterization was performed using FTIR which showed a high percentage of benzene C=C bond stretching as well as C=O bond stretching, indicative of an aldehydic group. GC-MS confirmed the prescence of cinnamaldehyde in our samples due to the presence of cinnamaldehyde peaks observed after mass spectrophotometery. XRD showed a cubic crystalline structure of carbon, indicative of the unique structure of cinnamaldehyde crystals. A BALB/c collagen induced model was designed to via histopathological changes, and gross morphological changes. Extracts showed good ameliorative effects (p<0.05) after day 2 of treatment. A greater therapeutic role was observed for the 4 mg/kgBW dosage of the methanolic extract (p<0.01). The anti-oxidative potential of cinnamaldehyde was shown as it inhibited LPS stimulated murine lymphocytes (p<0.05) as well as had significant DPPH inhibition (p<0.05). Higher doses of the methanolic extracts however showed better inhibition (p<0.01). DNA damage was observed via the comet assay, DNA damage was shown as a result of oxidative damage. There were comet tails in arthritic mice, showing the elevated DNA damage. The extract fed groups had a lower level of DNA damage in a dose dependant manner (p<0.05 to p<0.01). There was also an inhibitory role by the extracts on NFATc3 (p<0.05), TNF-Alpha (p<0.05), CAII (p<0.05) and mCalpain (p<0.05) all proteins involved in the progression of RA. It has been shown in this study that cinnamaldehyde has an anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory role due to its inhibitory and anti-oxidative functioning.