from the article:
Abstract
Inflammation is an important therapeutic target. Due to their potency, steroidal drugs dominate
the current treatment of inflammatory disorders. However, steroidal drugs can also
exert a broad range of side effects and appear not always effective. This calls for the development
of alternative drugs with a different mechanism of action, which are likely to be
found in the field of natural products (NPs). For many NPs strong anti-inflammatory effects
have been described, but usually investigating a single compound in a single assay. In this
study, eight promising NPs were selected and tested against the strong anti-inflammatory
drug prednisolone. For this head-to-head comparison, in vitro assays were used which represent
different pathways of the inflammatory response: TNF-α and IL-6 expression by macrophages,
IL-8 expression by colon epithelial cells, ROS production in polymorphonuclear
leukocytes and platelet activation in whole blood. Performance profiles were established
which allowed us to identify curcumin, berberine chloride and epigallocatechin gallate as
potential alternatives for prednisolone or other glucocorticoids in inflammation.