Effects of Kolaviron on Pneumonia-like Infection Induced in Albino Wistar Rats

Abstract

Background: Pneumonia is an acute or chronic inflammatory disorder of the lungs, affecting the mucosalareas of the lung.It can becaused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. In some cases, it may be caused by physical or chemical irritants. Kolaviron, a natural bioflavonoid extract from Garcinia kola seeds, has been shown to possess anti-inflammatory properties in Flu-like conditions which are associated with cough. There has been paucity of information on the likelihood of the effectiveness of kolaviron against pneumonia-infections. Objective: To evaluate the anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects of kolaviron on albino Wister ratsinduced with pneumonia using Klebsiella pneumonia. Methods: Powdered Garcinia kola seeds were extracted, withn-hexane and 100% methanol as solvents, using Soxhlet extractor. Astandard method was used to obtain kolaviron from the seed extracts. A total of 24 albino wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups A to F,each comprised four rats. The rats were allowed for 1 hour to acclimatize in very cold environments using ice packs. A standardized 1.0 x10-5 mg/ml culture suspension was intranasally inoculated to the rats for 10 days to induce pneumonia-like symptoms. Thereafter, the kolaviron was administered to the rats such that a500mg/kg kolaviron extract was given once daily to groups A (male rat) and B (female rat). Groups C (male rat)and D (female rat)received 250mg/kg of kolaviron extract once daily while group E rats were given 0.5 ml of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) once daily, and served as negative control. The rats in Group F received 2.86 mg/kg of ofloxacin once daily, and served as positive control. All the treatments were done for a period of 5 days.Then 10 days after thetreatments, the animals were sacrificed and the lungs were harvested for hydrostatic lung test and histopathological examination. An overnight broth culture of Klebsiella pneumonia was streaked in sterile molten nutrient agar maintained at 37o C for 24hrs.Later a stock of 500mg/ml of kolaviron was prepared in DMSO. Two–fold dilutions were performed to obtain the following concentrations with the stock inclusive: 100%, 50%, 25%, 12.5%, 6.25%, 3.125%, and 1.565%.The anti-Klebsiella pneumonia activity of the kolaviron extract was determined using agar well diffusion methodsand incubation was done at 37o C for 24 hrs.Student t-test and One-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for comparison of mean differences between and among groups. Results: The sensitivity of Klebsiella pneumonia to kolaviron was concentration-dependent. There was increase in antiKlebsiella pneumonia activity with decrease in kolaviron concentration. Kolaviron (KV), at 500mg/kg concentration, was efficacious and showed significant anti-inflammatory effects, (P<0.0001). This was also confirmed in the histopathological examinations. The 3.125% concentration of the kolaviron gave IZDs that ranges from 25.68±3.33 mm in day 1 to 27.33±2.78 mm in day 5. Treatment with kolaviron was sex-dependent having significant difference,(p<0.0001), when pretreatment and post-treatment effects were compared between male and female rats. Conclusion: Kolaviron can be used as an agent in the treatment of pneumonia as the KV possesses anti-inflammatory and anti-Klebsiella pneumonia activities.

Garcinia kola: a critical review on chemistry and pharmacology of an important West African medicinal plant

“…According to the subsequent tests on cell lines, it was suggested that KV might be the most active anti-inflammatory principle of G. kola , interfering with the normal production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandins (via COX enzymes inhibition), nitric oxide, interleukins, tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (Olaleye et al 2010 ; Abarikwu 2014 ; Ayepola et al 2014b , a ; Awogbindin et al 2017 ; Okoko 2018 ). Recent animal study revealed that KV have decreased inflammation in pneumonia-like Klebsiella infection induced in wistar rats (Dozie-Nwakile et al 2021 ). Additionally, KV was found to reduce neuroinflammation in BV2 microglia/HT22 hippocampal neuron co-culture, exerting its activity via the same mechanisms mentioned above.…”