Anti-inflammatory activity of transported bioactive compounds from cambuci and uvaia through Caco-2 cells model

There is a great diversity of unexplored native fruits species in Brazil, with high nutritional and biological value. Studies with these fruits are driven by the association between their consumption and disease prevention. Previous work have indicated that several Brazilian native fruits are rich in compounds that have anti-inflammatory activity, among them cambuci (Campomanesia phaea) and uvaia (Eugenia pyriformis Cambess). Thus, this study aimed to deepen the anti-inflammatory potential of these two fruits after digestion and absorption of bioactive compounds using a human intestinal epithelial cell line Caco-2. Firstly, cambuci and uvaia were submitted to in vitro digestion coupled with intestinal absorption model using Caco-2 cells, in order to obtain their transported fractions. Then, the anti-inflammatory activity of the basolateral fractions was evaluated using RAW 264.7 macrophages transfected with the NF-kB-pLUC gene. Cambuci (C. phaea) was collected in the Sítio Alto da Serra, located in Natividade da Serra/SP and Uvaia (E. pyriformis Cambess) in Cabo Verde/MG. In vitro digestion was carried out following the static model standardized by COST INFOGEST (BRODKORB et al., 2019), that simulate oral, gastric, and intestinal stages of human digestion. For the transport assay, Caco-2 cells were acquired from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC® HTB-37™) and cultured according to the protocol of Hubatsch et al. (2007). Anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by the following assays: NF-κB transcription factor (NF-κB), quantification of TNF-α and CXCL2/MIP-2 chemokine. Cambuci and uvaia showed high anti-inflammatory activity after ingestion. RAW cells treated with high concentrations showed significant reduction in NF-kB activation for both samples. These results suggest that these fruits contributed to modulate the inflammatory process, with a great effect observed in the transported compounds from uvaia. For TNF-α, the basolateral fraction of uvaia at concentration of 600μg/mL showed the greatest reduction of this cytokine (49%). For the chemokine CXCL2/MIP-2, both fruits presented similar results.