Encouraged by our earlier results of promising
therapeutic effect of filarial
recombinant proteins BmALT2, BmCys and WbL2 individually in the mouse model of acute
ulcerative colitis, in this study, these
proteins have been explored individually and in different combinations for their therapeutic potential in
dextran sulphate
sodium (DSS)-induced chronic
colitis mice. These mice, treated with filarial
proteins, showed reduced disease parameters including
body weight loss, disease activity index, macroscopic and histopathological scores of colon and
myeloperoxidase activity in colonic mucosa. Among various treatment schemes, rBmALT2 + rBmCys which showed most pronounced therapeutic implication was found to downregulate the
mRNA expressions of IFN-γ and TNF-α and upregulate
IL-10 and TGF-β expression in the splenocytes. Also, increase in level of
IgG1 and
IgG2a isotypes in the sera of rBmALT2 + rBmCys-treated
colitis mice was noted. Activated NF-κB level was found to be reduced in the colon of treated
colitis mice compared to untreated one. In conclusion, filarial
proteins in combination have been shown to improve the clinicopathologic status of chronic
colitis through suppression of pro-inflammatory immune response most possibly in NF-κB-dependent manner. We propose this therapeutic strategy to be tested further to be considered as an effective option in chronic
colitis.