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Anti-rheumatic activity of pseudoephedrine (a substituted phenethylamine) in complete Freund’s adjuvant-induced arthritic rats by down regulating IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α as well as upregulating IL-4 and IL-10

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Abstract

Pseudoephedrine (substituted phenethylamine) is well known as psychotic and bronchodilator. Numerous studies on phenethylamine derivatives indicated that these agents have the potential to abolish inflammatory responses in the non-biological and biological systems. These facts provided the basis to conduct a study on pseudoephedrine to explore its therapeutics in Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA)-induced arthritis. Furthermore, existing treatment approaches for RA associated with limited effect on chronic immunological models. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) was performed to execute the expression of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in treated and non-treated arthritic rats. These findings were further co investigate by histological observations. The paw volume, paw diameter, weight variations and arthritic score were determined at specific days throughout the experiment of 28 days. Pseudoephedrine at all doses significantly (p < 0.001) suppressed the expression of PGE2, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6. Moreover, pseudoephedrine (20 and 40 mg/kg) caused significant augmentation of IL-4 and IL-10. Similarly, the drug expressed a significant anti-arthritic effect by reducing the paw volume, paw diameter and arthritic score. Similarly, it also reverts the reduction in body weight of arthritic rats at all above-mentioned doses. These findings supported the anti-arthritic potential of pseudoephedrine and recommended it for clinical trials.

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Funding

The funding and technical support for this experimental work is supported by College of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 40100, Pakistan

    Haseeb Ahsan, Hafiz Muhammad Irfan, Mulazim Hussain Asim & Muhammad Akram

  2. Department of Pharmacology, University College of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan

    Alamgeer

  3. Department of Pharmacology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Shahzad & Muhammad Shoaib Zafar

Authors
  1. Haseeb Ahsan
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  2. Hafiz Muhammad Irfan
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  3. Alamgeer
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  4. Muhammad Shahzad
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  5. Mulazim Hussain Asim
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  6. Muhammad Akram
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  7. Muhammad Shoaib Zafar
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Contributions

The concept and idea of this project was designed by Dr. Alamgeer, methodology and research work was developed by Mr. HA under the supervision of Dr. HMI, writing of original draft was done by Dr. MHA, PCR and mRNA analysis was performed by Dr. MS and MSZ. Funding was acquired by HA and MA.

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Correspondence to Hafiz Muhammad Irfan.

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The authors claimed no conflict of interest.

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The animals used in my study were approved by the Biosafety and Ethical Review Committee of University of Sargodha, Sargodha Pakistan (ethical approval no. SU/ORIC/19).

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Ahsan, H., Irfan, H.M., Alamgeer et al. Anti-rheumatic activity of pseudoephedrine (a substituted phenethylamine) in complete Freund’s adjuvant-induced arthritic rats by down regulating IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α as well as upregulating IL-4 and IL-10. Inflammopharmacol 29, 673–682 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-021-00804-z

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