Ferulic acid reduces inflammatory response induced by radiation through Sirt1-NLRP3 pathway

Abstract

Objective: A model of inflammatory damage was induced by radiation to investigate whether ferulic acid (FA) can reduce the inflammatory response through the Sirt1-NLRP3 inflammatory pathway. This will help discover radiation-protective drugs and elucidate the molecular mechanisms related to radiation-induced inflammatory damage.
Methods: A mouse model of radiation-induced immunoinflammatory injury was established to verify the anti-inflammatory effects of FA in vivo. C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into six groups, and 5 Gy whole-body irradiation was used for modeling. Mice were administered a gastric solvent, amifostine, or 25, 50, or 100 mg/kg FA daily for 12 days, consecutively, before irradiation. The serum of mice was collected 24 hour after irradiation to observe the content of inflammatory factors interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. The spleen and thymus tissues of mice were weighed and the organ index was calculated for pathological testing and immunofluorescence detection.
Results: FA reduced the radiation-induced decrease in the spleen and thymus indices. FA significantly reduced the secretion of inflammatory factors in the serum and reversed the radiation-induced reduction in lymphocytes in the spleen and thymus of mice. FA activated Sirt1 and inhibited the expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome to alleviate the inflammatory response.
Conclusions: FA reduced radiation-induced inflammation in animals, possibly by activating Sirt1 and reducing nucleotide oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor thermal protein domain associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome expression, thereby reducing the secretion of inflammatory factors.

Keywords

Ferulic acid / NLRP3 inflammasome / Radiation inflammation / Sirt1

Conflict of interest statement

Yue Gao is an editorial board member of the journal. None of the other authors declare any conflicts of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program (2022YFC3500303), Innovation Team and Talents Cultivation Program of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ZYYCXTD-C-202009), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81873063).

Author contributions

Yao Nie, Mingyue Huang, Tingyu Yang, Yue Gao, and Zengchun Ma designed the study. Yao Nie, Mingyue Huang, Tingyu Yang, and Zengchun Ma wrote the paper. Yao Nie, Mingyue Huang, Tingyu Yang, Yu Mei, Huiting Zhang, and Xue Wei participated in this research. Yao Nie, Mingyue Huang, Yu Mei, Huiting Zhang, and Xue Wei contributed new reagents and analytical tools. Yao Nie, Mingyue Huang, and Tingyu Yang analyzed the data.

Ethical approval of studies and informed consent

All animal experiments were conducted in compliance with the Chinese Animal Care and Welfare guidelines. All animal experiments were conducted in compliance with the guidelines of the Animal Ethics Committee (ethics number: IACUC-DWZX-2021-584). All animal experiments were conducted in compliance with the Chinese Animal Care and Welfare Guidelines. This article contains no experiments involving human subjects conducted by any of the contributors. This article contains no experiments involving human subjects conducted by any of the contributors.

Acknowledgments

None.

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Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine