Immunomodulators Inspired by Nature: A Review on Curcumin and Echinacea

Abstract

The immune system is an efficient integrated network of cellular elements and chemicals developed to preserve the integrity of the organism against external insults and its correct functioning and balance are essential to avoid the occurrence of a great variety of disorders. To date, evidence from literature highlights an increase in immunological diseases and a great attention has been focused on the development of molecules able to modulate the immune response. There is an enormous global demand for new effective therapies and researchers are investigating new fields. One promising strategy is the use of herbal medicines as integrative, complementary and preventive therapy. The active components in medical plants have always been an important source of clinical therapeutics and the study of their molecular pharmacology is an enormous challenge since they offer a great chemical diversity with often multi-pharmacological activity. In this review, we mainly analysed the immunomodulatory/antinflammatory activity of Echinacea spp. and Curcuma longa, focusing on some issues of the phytochemical research and on new possible strategies to obtain novel agents to supplement the present therapies.

Suppression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression through FOXM1 and EMT Inhibition via Hydroxygenkwanin-Induced miR-320a Expression

“…The efficacy of natural products against diseases has been shown in numerous studies, and has led to the use of certain natural products (e.g., artemisinin and curcumin) in current clinical interventions [38,39]. HGK is a flavonoid that is extracted from the flower buds of D. genkwa, a commonly used medicinal herb in Southeast Asian countries; however, knowledge of the bioactivity of HGK remains limited to date.…”

The new aspects of using some safe feed additives on alleviated imidacloprid toxicity in farmed fish: a review

“…Several investigations have demonstrated that curcumin is a popular therapy for immune disorders (Yonar et al, 2019). Curcumin has been revealed to be an effective immunomodulatory agent that can regulate the activation of T cells, B cells, macrophages, neutrophils, natural killer cells and dendritic cells (Catanzaro et al, 2018). It can also downregulate the induction of several proinflammatory cytokines including TNF, IL‐1, IL‐2, IL‐6, IL‐8, IL‐12 and chemokines, most probable throughout inactivation of the NF‐κB transcription factor (Zhou et al, 2011).…”

Evaluation of Ascorbic Acid or Curcumin Formulated in a Solid Dispersion on Salmonella Enteritidis Infection and Intestinal Integrity in Broiler Chickens

“…In contrast, supplementation with SD-CUR significantly reduced S. Enteritidis counts in CT by > 1.5 log in both independent trials (Table 1). This reduction is related to the increase in the solubility and permeability of curcumin when formulated in a solid dispersion using PVP-K30 [29,30] and, therefore to the improvement of its antimicrobial and immunoregulatory-immunostimulatory effects [19,31,32]. We have observed in an in vitro study previously published by our laboratory that raw curcumin had no antimicrobial effect against S. Enteritidis [33].…”