Phytochemicals as Anti-Inflammatory Agents in Animal Models of Prevalent Inflammatory Diseases
Seong Ah Shin,
Byeong Jun Joo,
Jun Seob Lee,
Gyoungah Ryu,
Minjoo Han,
Woe Yeon Kim,
Hyun Ho Park,
Jun Hyuck Lee,
Chang Sup Lee
Affiliations
Seong Ah Shin
College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, 501 Jinju-daero, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, Korea
Byeong Jun Joo
College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, 501 Jinju-daero, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, Korea
Jun Seob Lee
College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, 501 Jinju-daero, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, Korea
Gyoungah Ryu
College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, 501 Jinju-daero, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, Korea
Minjoo Han
College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, 501 Jinju-daero, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, Korea
Woe Yeon Kim
Division of Applied Life Science (BK21), Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Research Center (PMBBRC), Research Institute of Life Sciences (RILS), Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea
Hyun Ho Park
College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea
Jun Hyuck Lee
Research Unit of Cryogenic Novel Material, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Korea
Chang Sup Lee
College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, 501 Jinju-daero, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, Korea
Phytochemicals are known to have anti-inflammatory effects in vitro and in vivo, such as in inflammatory disease model systems. Inflammation is an essential immune response to exogenous stimuli such as infection and injury. Although inflammation is a necessary host-defense mechanism, chronic inflammation is associated with the continuous local or systemic release of inflammatory mediators, non-cytokine mediators, such as ROS and NO, and inflammatory cytokines are strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of various inflammatory disorders. Phytochemicals that exhibit anti-inflammatory mechanisms that reduce sustained inflammation could be therapeutic candidates for various inflammatory diseases. These phytochemicals act by modulating several main inflammatory signaling pathways, including NF-κB, MAPKs, STAT, and Nrf-2 signaling. Here, we discuss the characteristics of phytochemicals that possess anti-inflammatory activities in various chronic inflammatory diseases and review the molecular signaling pathways altered by these anti-inflammatory phytochemicals, with a focus on transcription factor pathways. Furthermore, to evaluate the phytochemicals as drug candidates, we translate the effective doses of phytochemicals in mice or rat disease models into the human-relevant equivalent and compare the human-relevant equivalent doses of several phytochemicals with current anti-inflammatory drugs doses used in different types of chronic inflammatory diseases.