Brazilian Propolis Antileishmanial and Immunomodulatory Effects

Abstract

The antileishmanial and immunomodulatory effects of propolis collected in Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil, were evaluated in Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis experimental infection. The antileishmanial effect of propolis on promastigote forms was verified by reducing growth and by promoting morphologic alterations observed by scanning electron microscopy. In in vitro immunomodulatory assays, macrophages were pretreated with propolis and then infected with L. (V.) braziliensis. In vivo, supernatants from liver cells and peritoneal exudate of BALB/c mice pretreated with propolis and infected with Leishmania (107/mL promastigotes) were collected, and TNF-α and IL-12 were measured by ELISA. Macrophages incubated with propolis showed a significant increase in interiorization and further killing of parasites. An increased TNF-α production was seen in mice pretreated with propolis, whereas IL-12 was downregulated during the infection. In conclusion, Brazilian propolis showed a direct action on the parasite and displayed immunomodulatory effects on murine macrophages, even though the parasite has been reported to affect the activation pathways of the cell. The observed effects could be associated with the presence of phenolic compounds (flavonoids, aromatic acids, and benzopyranes), di- and triterpenes, and essential oils found in our propolis sample.

Biological Properties and Therapeutic Applications of Propolis

“…One of the samples was fractionated, and active fractions were assayed using macrophages infected with Leishmania donovani , showing that their activity was higher in suppressing the infection of murine peritoneal macrophages than that of bone marrow macrophages. Propolis exhibited a leishmanicidal activity because of morphological alterations such as shrinkage of promastigotes (Silva et al ., ). Propolis reduced Leishmania amazonensis ‐induced inflammation in the liver of BALB/c mice, decreasing the levels of hepatic enzymes, collagen fibre deposition and pro‐inflammatory cytokine production and reversing hepatosplenomegaly (Silva et al ., ).…”

Antibacterial and leishmanicidal activity of Bolivian propolis

“…Its botanical source was the Asteraceae Baccharis dracunculifolia , and the chemical composition includes phenolic compounds, diterpenes, triterpenes and essential oils (da Silva et al . ).…”

“…Propolis from Sao Paulo State, Brazil, showed antiproliferative activity on L. brazilensis promastigotes at 100 lg ml À1 . Its botanical source was the Asteraceae Baccharis dracunculifolia, and the chemical composition includes phenolic compounds, diterpenes, triterpenes and essential oils (da Silva et al 2013). Santana et al (2014) reported antileishmanial activity of brown propolis from the semi-arid region of Brazil.…”

“…There are reports on the leishmanicidal effect of propolis from Turkey on L. tropica (Duran et al 2008) and samples from Portugal on L. infantum (Falcão et al 2014). Propolis from Brazil has been investigated for antileishmanial effect against Leishmania brasiliensis (Pontin et al 2008;da Silva et al 2013) and L. amazonensis (Santana et al 2014).…”

Sodium nitroprusside has leishmanicidal activity independent of iNOS

“…Promastigote recovery was performed as previously described (18) . Briefl y, peritoneal macrophages (5 × 10 5 cells) were infected with L. amazonensis, treated for 24h at 37ºC and 5 % CO 2 with 0.5 and 1.5µg/mL sodium nitroprusside, washed with phosphate-buffered saline, and incubated at 24°C with 199 medium to induce differentiation of intracellular amastigotes into promastigotes.…”