DEVELOPMENTAL OF AN ECONOMICAL METHOD FOR OSTRICH OIL REFINEMENT AND EVALUATING ITS THERAPEUTICAL EFFECTS IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS OF RAT MODEL.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic disease characterised by persistent inflammatory synovitis that typically involves peripheral joints in a symmetric distribution. The synovial inflammation can cause cartilage destruction and bone erosions that are irreversible. Although various studies have been conducted on RA, currently there is no cure for this disease. The RA patients are clinically managed with steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). These drugs pose various health risks and side-effects. Therefore, there is a need to find other therapeutic approaches that have anti-inflammatory effects but with lesser or no risk of side effect. Oils from ostrich and emu are well-known for their anti-inflammatory effects. To date, the anti-inflammatory effects of ostrich oil (OO) have not been evaluated as a potential therapeutic agent for RA. In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of OO in an established rat model of RA. The aim of this study was to refine and enrich the OO with natural bioactive compounds and compare the therapeutic efficacy of the various formulations in a rat model of RA using various parameters (histopathology, biomarkers). While carrying out this study, we developed and optimised a new method to refine ostrich oil (patent filed). The refined oil is further enriched with extracts from various plants or pure natural compounds to improve its’ stability and therapeutic properties. The therapeutic efficacy of the refined and stabilised OO was tested using the well-established rat model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Briefly, arthritis was induced in Dark Agouti (DA) rats by injecting the rats intradermally with a mixture of collagen type II emulsified in Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA) on day 0. The arthritis rats were topically treated with 500 mg/kg of the various OO formulations prepared when they start showing signs of arthritis, usually from day 30 up to day 45, when the study was terminated. Control rats were not given any treatment. The therapeutic efficacy of this treatment approach was assessed by the ability of the formulated OO to reduce paw oedema as well as by evaluating histopathological changes, protein and gene expressions. The results show that refined OO stabilised with curcumin or grape seed extract showed the most significant (p<0.05) effect in reducing paw oedema compared to the other OO formulations. The paw oedema changes correlated partially with histopathological analysis where there was significant reversal of changes in groups treated with OO stabilised with curcumin or grape seed extract but the effects were not so remarkable with the other OO formulations.