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Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities of Bouvardia ternifolia: potential implications in Alzheimer’s disease

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Abstract

Bouvardia ternifolia has been used medicinally to treat inflammation. In the present study, we investigate the anti-Alzheimer’s potential effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of B. ternifolia through evaluation of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, quantification of the percentage inhibition of acetylcholinesterase activity, protection effect against β-amyloid fibrillar-induce neurotoxicity, and the identification of the main constituents. Our results show that B. ternifolia extract and ethyl acetate fraction induced anti-inflammatory effects by reducing inflammation by >70 %, while antioxidant test revealed significant IC50 values for flavonoid content fraction (30.67 ± 2.09 μg/ml) and ethyl acetate fraction (42.66 ± 0.93 μg/ml). The maximum inhibition of acetylcholinesterase was exhibited by scopoletin content fraction (38.43 ± 3.94 %), while ethyl acetate fraction exerted neuroprotective effect against β-amyloid peptide (83.97 ± 5.03 %). Phytochemical analysis, showed the presence of 3-O-quercetin glucopyranoside (415 mg/g), rutin (229.9 mg/g), ursolic and oleanolic acid (54 and 20.8 mg/g respectively), 3-O-quercetin rhamnopyranoside (12.8 mg/g), chlorogenic acid (9.5 mg/g), and scopoletin (1.38 mg/g). Our findings support the use of B. ternifolia since the extract induced significant neuroprotection against β-amyloid peptide, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-acetylcholinesterase effects that could be attributed to its contents of polyphenols, coumarins, and triterpenes, and encourage further studies for development of this extract as therapeutic agent in treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grant R-2010-1701-57 (to A. A.-R.) from the FIS-Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, México. G. García-Morales is grateful for a doctoral fellowship from CONACyT (Exp. No. 212,779). The authors wish to thank Jonathan Orduño, Arturo Pérez (CIBIS-IMSS), and Antonio Nieto-Camacho (Instituto de Química-UNAM) for technical assistance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación Biomédica del Sur, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Xochitepec, Morelos, Mexico

    Giovanni García-Morales, Maira Huerta-Reyes, Manasés González-Cortazar, Alejandro Zamilpa, Enrique Jiménez-Ferrer & Arturo Aguilar-Rojas

  2. División de Ciencias Biológicas y de la Salud (DCBS), Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa (UAM-Iztapalapa), Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Giovanni García-Morales & Rubén Román-Ramos

  3. Unidad de Investigación Médica en Farmacología, Hospital de Especialidades, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI (CMN-SXXI), IMSS, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Maira Huerta-Reyes

  4. Unidad de Investigación Médica en Inmunología, Hospital de Pediatría, CMN-SXXI, IMSS, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Raúl Silva-García

  5. Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, DCBS, UAM-Iztapalapa, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Rubén Román-Ramos

  6. Unidad de Investigación Médica en Medicina Reproductiva, Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad (UMAE) en Ginecología Obstetricia No. 4 “Dr. Luis Castelazo Ayala”, IMSS, Av. Río Magdalena No. 289, Col. Tizapán San Ángel, Delegación Álvaro Obregón, 01090, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Arturo Aguilar-Rojas

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  1. Giovanni García-Morales
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Correspondence to Arturo Aguilar-Rojas.

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García-Morales, G., Huerta-Reyes, M., González-Cortazar, M. et al. Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities of Bouvardia ternifolia: potential implications in Alzheimer’s disease. Arch. Pharm. Res. 38, 1369–1379 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-015-0587-6

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