Mass-spectrometric identification of T-kininogen I/thiostatin as an acute-phase inflammatory protein suppressed by curcumin and capsaicin

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 9;9(10):e107565. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107565. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Curcumin and capsaicin are dietary xenobiotics with well-documented anti-inflammatory properties. Previously, the beneficial effect of these spice principles in lowering chronic inflammation was demonstrated using a rat experimental model for arthritis. The extent of lowering of arthritic index by the spice principles was associated with a significant shift in macrophage function favoring the reduction of pro-inflammatory molecules such as reactive oxygen species and production and release of anti-inflammatory metabolites of arachidonic acid. Beyond the cellular effects on macrophage function, oral administration of curcumin and capsaicin caused alterations in serum protein profiles of rats injected with adjuvant to develop arthritis. Specifically, a 72 kDa acidic glycoprotein, GpA72, which was elevated in pre-arthritic rats, was significantly lowered by feeding either curcumin or capsaicin to the rats. Employing the tandem mass spectrometric approach for direct sequencing of peptides, here we report the identification of GpA72 as T-kininogen I also known as Thiostatin. Since T-kininogen I is an early acute-phase protein, we additionally tested the efficiency of curcumin and capsaicin to mediate the inflammatory response in an acute phase model. The results demonstrate that curcumin and capsaicin lower the acute-phase inflammatory response, the molecular mechanism for which is, in part, mediated by pathways associated with the lowering of T-kininogen I.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acute-Phase Proteins / metabolism*
  • Animals
  • Arachidonic Acid / metabolism
  • Capsaicin / pharmacology*
  • Curcumin / pharmacology*
  • Diet / methods
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Glycoproteins / metabolism
  • Inflammation / drug therapy*
  • Inflammation / metabolism
  • Kininogens / metabolism*
  • Male
  • Mass Spectrometry / methods
  • Rats
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Reactive Oxygen Species / metabolism

Substances

  • Acute-Phase Proteins
  • Glycoproteins
  • Kininogens
  • Reactive Oxygen Species
  • Arachidonic Acid
  • Curcumin
  • Capsaicin

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a grant from Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi (SP/SO/B-27/98). BJ and VB acknowledge support from the University of Toledo College of Medicine. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.