Protective effects of an aqueous extract of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae in an ovalbumin-induced murine model of asthma

ABSTRACT

Asthma is a disease-related allergic response characterized by the accumulation of inflammatory cells in airway tissue. Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae are known for their nutritional value and have been used in food; however, it is unknown whether they exert protective effects in a murine ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthmatic model. We investigated the protective effects of an aqueous extract of P. brevitarsis seulensis larvae (PBE) against OVA-induced asthma by performing histopathological analysis and measuring inflammatory mediators in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and flow cytometry. Asthmatic symptoms were attenuated by PBE, as indicated by decreased inflammation in lung tissue and decreased levels of inflammatory cells, inflammatory cytokines, and Th2 cell activation. Additionally, four out of six major metabolites isolated from P. brevitarsis seulensis attenuated Th2 cell activation, indicating that PBE attenuates asthmatic inflammation by regulating Th2 cell activation. Therefore, our findings support PBE as a pharmacological candidate for asthma treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis: allergy: asthma: T cell activation: type 2 helper T cells

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Hyun-Yong Kim: Formal analysis (lead); investigation (equal); writing-original draft (equal); writing-review and editing (equal). Hyeon-Hwa Nam: Data curation (equal); formal analysis (equal); and investigation (lead). Young Hye Seo: Formal analysis (both) and investigation (both). Sueun Lee: Data curation (equal) formal analysis (equal). Jin Mi Chun: Data curation (both) and formal analysis (both). Jun Lee: Methodology (radiation exposure). Jun Ho Song: Data curation (both). Kon-Young Ji: Data curation (both). Sung-Wook Chae: Data curation (equal); formal analysis (equal); investigation (equal). Bohye Kim investigated (histopathological examination). Changjong Moon: writing–original draft (lead); and writing–review and editing (equal). Yun-Soo Seo: Conceptualization (lead); data curation (equal); methodology (equal); writing–original draft (lead); writing–original draft (lead); writing-review and editing (equal). Joong-Sun Kim: Conceptualization (lead); data curation (equal); methodology (equal); writing–original draft (lead); writing–review and editing (equal).

Ethical approval

All animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM 20-002).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Convergence Research Group Project (CRC21021) of the National Research Council of Science and Technology, Development of Sustainable Applications for Standard Herbal Resources (KSN2021320).