Immunostimulatory activity in mammalian cells of 3,5-dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone ((-)-alpinone) isolated from Heliotropium huascoense resinous exudate

The flavonoid 3,5-dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone ((-)-alpinone) isolated from sticky resinous exudate of Heliotropium huascoense was evaluated as immunostimulatory in mammalian cells . Preliminary observations had showed that (-)-alpinone had increased the expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine transcripts in salmonid. Due to high morbidity and mortality that infectious diseases cause in humans, we evaluate the effect of (-)-alpinone as an immunostimulant in mammalian cells. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced by macrophages activators for the destruction of pathogens; we evaluated (-)-alpinone effect in ROS generation and the proliferation of macrophages. The results showed that proliferation in Raw 264.7 cells treated with 10 and 25 μg/mL of (-)-alpinone had a significant increase in macrophage proliferation. In relation to ROS formation, cells treated with 1 and 5 μg/mL of (-)-alpinone, induce ROS formation in macrophages.