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Virus-induced airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in the guinea-pig is inhibited by levodropropizine

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Summary

Intratracheal Parainfluenza type 3 (PI-3) virus inoculation of guinea pigs leads to a non-specific airway hyperresponsiveness in vivo and in vitro which coincides with a significant increase in the number of inflammatory cells in the broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (90% increase, 4 days after inoculation). The activity of the bronchoalveolar cells, as measured by the chemiluminescence production of infected animals is significantly diminished (34.2%, 4 days after inoculation) after renewed stimulation with PI-3 virus in vitro as compared to the chemiluminescence production by bronchoalveolar cells obtained from control guinea pigs.

Pretreatment of the guinea-pigs with the antitussive agent levodropropizine, administered intra-peritoneally twice a day for five successive days at a dose of 10 mg/kg, prevents the virus-induced airway hyperresponsiveness in vivo and in vitro, and inhibits the influx of broncho-alveolar cells. Levodropropizine at a dose of 1 mg/kg did not modulate these responses. Further, the decrease in chemiluminescence production of broncho-alveolar cells obtained from virus-infected animals after PI-3 virus stimulation in vitro was inhibited by levodropropizine (10 mg/kg).

These data demonstrate the ability of levodropropizine to counteract the hyperresponsiveness phenomenon and the associated inflammatory event induced by PI-3 virus, an effect which may be due to its capacity to act on the peptidergic system or may be due to the anti-allergic/bronchoconstrictor property of this compound.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.082, NL-3508 TB, The Netherlands

    Gert Folkerts, Henk J. van der Linde & Frans P. Nijkamp

  2. Research and Development Laboratories, Dompé Farmaceutici S.p.A., Milan, Italy

    Claudio Omini

Authors
  1. Gert Folkerts
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  2. Henk J. van der Linde
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  3. Claudio Omini
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  4. Frans P. Nijkamp
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Correspondence to G. Folkerts at the above address

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Folkerts, G., van der Linde, H.J., Omini, C. et al. Virus-induced airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in the guinea-pig is inhibited by levodropropizine. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 348, 213–219 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00164801

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