CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Nectandra angustifolia (N.a.) is a nativeplant whose leaf and bark extracts have been used inethnomedicine for the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis, chronicpain and as an antivenom in snakebites. Therefore, the objectiveof this work was to characterize its possible biological activities.Leaves and stems of N.a. were air-dried and an extract (NaE)was further obtained by maceration with ethanolic. Totalflavonoid content and antioxidant activity were determined onNaE using the aluminum trichloride technique and DPPHrespectively. The chromatographic profile of NaE wassubsequently determined by HPLC identifying peaks compatiblewith flavonoids. The non-cytotoxic concentration of NaE (50μg/mL) was determined for in vitro biological assays using Raw264.7 (murine macrophages) cell cultures through cell countingwith Trypan-blue and XTT Kit® assay. Subsequently, the cell cycle of RAW 264.7 cells exposed to NaE (10, 50 and 100 μg/ml)was analyzed for 24 h, revealing a dose-depending decrease inS-phase cells, as well as, an enhancement of the sub-Gopopulation compared to control cells. These data are compatiblewith a NaE induction of cell apoptosis. Additionally, the antiinflammatorycapacity of NaE was evaluated by RT-qPCR. Briefly,proinflammatory cytokine gene expression (IL-1 and IL-6) weredetermined in cells preincubated with NaE and, subsequentlystimulated with LPS compared to those treated with LPS alone.Experimental data show that NaE decreases the release ofproinflammatory cytokines at different exposure times (4 and 24h). These preliminary results show that NaE contains naturalcomponents with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory propertiesthat would be an attractive option for the future design ofphytotherapeutics with different applications in biomedicine.