Protective effect of piperine from Piper chaba fruits on LPS-induced inflammation in human intestinal cell line

Piper chaba is a flowering vine in the family of piperaceae. It is a spicy plant widely used as food and herbal medicine in the South and Southeast Asian countries. The study evaluated anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities of a major alkaloid extract, piperine, from P. chaba fruits on human colonic epithelial cells. The effects of piperine extract on cell viability, pro-inflammatory cytokine inhibition, and immunomodulation on inflammatory genes were evaluated in vitro using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory model in Caco-2 cells. T-test and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. Piperine, in the doses of non-cytotoxicity (1, 10, 50 µg/ml), reversed effect of LPS on pro-inflammatory cytokines; tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and interleukin (IL)-6 production. In addition, it also confirmed the activity on mediating IκB-α/NF-κB signaling proteins by activating IκB-α and suppressing NF-κB expression leading to attenuate pro-inflammatory cytokine release during the inflammatory process. The study concludes that piperine from P. chaba inhibits LPS-induced inflammation in intestinal epithelial cells by modulating cytokine gene expression via down regulation of IκB-α/NF-κB signaling pathway. Key words: Piperine, Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine, Iκb-Α, Nf-Κb, Caco-2 Cells.