Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq.
Sci Rep. 2024 May 15;14(1):11131. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61269-y.
This study aimed to investigate the potential anti-fibrotic activity of vinpocetine in an experimental model of pulmonary fibrosis by bleomycin and in the MRC-5 cell line. Pulmonary fibrosis was induced in BALB/c mice by oropharyngeal aspiration of a single dose of bleomycin (5 mg/kg). The remaining induced animals received a daily dose of pirfenidone (as a standard anti-fibrotic drug) (300 mg/kg/PO) and vinpocetine (20 mg/kg/PO) on day 7 of the induction till the end of the experiment (day 21). The results of the experiment revealed that vinpocetine managed to alleviate the fibrotic endpoints by statistically improving (P ≤ 0.05) the weight index, histopathological score, reduced expression of fibrotic-related proteins in immune-stained lung sections, as well as fibrotic markers measured in serum samples. It also alleviated tissue levels of oxidative stress and inflammatory and pro-fibrotic mediators significantly elevated in bleomycin-only induced animals (P ≤ 0.05). Vinpocetine managed to express a remarkable attenuating effect in pulmonary fibrosis both in vivo and in vitro either directly by interfering with the classical TGF-β1/Smad2/3 signaling pathway or indirectly by upregulating the expression of Nrf2 enhancing the antioxidant system, activating PPAR-γ and downregulating the NLRP3/NF-κB pathway making it a candidate for further clinical investigation in cases of pulmonary fibrosis.
本研究旨在通过博来霉素和 MRC-5 细胞系研究长春西汀在实验性肺纤维化模型中的潜在抗纤维化活性。通过口咽吸入单次剂量博来霉素(5mg/kg)在 BALB/c 小鼠中诱导肺纤维化。在诱导的第 7 天,其余诱导的动物接受吡非尼酮(作为标准抗纤维化药物)(300mg/kg/PO)和长春西汀(20mg/kg/PO)的每日剂量,直至实验结束(第 21 天)。实验结果表明,长春西汀通过统计学上改善(P≤0.05)体重指数、组织病理学评分、免疫染色肺切片中纤维化相关蛋白的表达以及血清样本中纤维化标志物,成功减轻了纤维化终点。它还显著减轻了博来霉素诱导的动物中明显升高的组织氧化应激和炎症及促纤维化介质的水平(P≤0.05)。长春西汀在体内和体外的肺纤维化中均表现出显著的减轻作用,直接通过干扰经典的 TGF-β1/Smad2/3 信号通路,或间接通过上调 Nrf2 的表达增强抗氧化系统、激活 PPAR-γ 和下调 NLRP3/NF-κB 途径。这使其成为肺纤维化进一步临床研究的候选药物。