Shuteria involucrata alleviates OVA-induced asthma through the TLR4/NF-κB pathway

The roots of Shuteria involucrata (Wall.) Wight & Arn., known as “Tong-qian-ma-huang” in Dai folk medicine in China, are renowned for their efficacy in treating asthma. Despite the use of S. involucrata has been reported as ameliorating respiratory diseases, its mechanism of action remains unclear. This work described the effect of ethyl acetate extract of S. involucrate (SSE) on allergic asthma and its potential mechanism of action was assessed. Ovalbumin was used in vivo to establish a BALB/c asthma mouse model. Lipopolysaccharide was used in vitro to stimulate the human macrophage cell line THP-1 to establish an inflammatory model. In vivo and in vitro experiments showed that SSE effectively ameliorated pathological symptoms and attenuated airway inflammation and cellular inflammation in allergic asthma mice, with a mechanism of action potentially associated to the inhibition of the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.