RESUMO
ABSTRACT Calea urticifolia (Mill.) DC., Asteraceae, is a native plant of the Yucatan Peninsula used in traditional medicine to treat inflammation and pain. The bioassay-guided purification of the ethanol root extract allowed the isolation of the main bioactive metabolites, which were identified as an inseparable mixture of thymol (1) and 3-methyl-4-isopropylphenol (2), together with 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid methyl ester (3), 3,4-O-dicaffeoyl-epi-quinic acid methyl ester (4), 3,5-O-dicaffeoyl-epi-quinic acid methyl ester (5) and 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid (6). The results showed that the analgesic activity detected in the root extract of C. urticifolia could be attributed mainly to the mixture of 1 and 2 and to the novel 3,4-O-dicaffeoyl-epi-quinic acid methyl ester (4). Alternatively, the similarity on the antiinflammatory and antioxidant activities of the dicaffeoylquinic acid derivatives 3-5 suggests that the former might be related to their ability as radical scavengers.
RESUMO
Previous work showed that immunotherapy with a DNA vaccine encoding Trypanosoma cruzi antigen TSA-1 reduced cardiac tissue damage and improved survival in mice when administered during the acute or chronic phases of T. cruzi infection. In the present study, we investigated changes in T-cell populations induced by DNA vaccine immunotherapy. ICR mice were infected with 500 T. cruzi blood trypomastigotes and treated during the acute or chronic phases with two 100 microg doses of DNA vaccine. Analysis of stained splenocytes by flow cytometry indicated that the therapeutic vaccine induced a rapid increase in the number of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in both the acute and chronic phases. Also, there was a rapid increase in T. cruzi-specific IFNgamma-producing CD8+ T cells following treatment during the chronic phase. The effects of these changes on the control of infection required longer time periods to be detectable but resulted in a reduction in myocarditis and T. cruzi parasite burden in both phases of the infection, as assessed by histopathologic analysis and semi-quantitative PCR detection of T. cruzi in cardiac tissue. These results suggest that DNA vaccines that induce CD8+ T-cells activity and IFNgamma production, would be good candidates for effective therapeutic vaccination against T. cruzi infection.