Theses (MSc. Molecular Medicine)

Inflammation is the pathophysiological mechanism of a wide variety of diseases and conditions and is becoming a major concern and poses a huge impact on the health system. It usually begins with a triggering factor and goes through a series of chemical and biological reactions that eventually ends up causing clinical signs and/or symptoms. Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are classic examples of chronic inflammatory diseases. These diseases are normally treated according to global guidelines with chemical drugs but unfortunately, these drugs have major limitations including not being effectively able to prevent future exacerbation besides the dangerous side effect. For these reasons, scientists noticed the pressing need for finding another way to control asthma and COPD while preventing future exacerbation and avoiding debilitating side effects, so they started considering alternative agents derived from natural products and plants, one of which is the substance of interest in this study, Agarwood oil. Agarwood oil, the valuable resinous oil extracted from fungus infected trees growing in tropical areas in Asia, has been long used as a traditional medicinal agent in various parts of the world in addition to its cultural and cosmetic uses. In the last few decades, researchers discovered many biological actions of agarwood oil or its extracts in treating disorders including cancer, pain relief, and inflammation. Hence, we decided to explore the possibility of agarwood oil in treating inflammatory conditions like asthma and COPD by doing in vitro studies on two types of cultured cells (BEAS-2B and RAW 264.7) to test its activity. Our results showed a significant decrease in the number of cytokines including interleukin (IL-6,8,1β), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), nitric oxide (NO), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by cells induced with (lipopolysaccharide) LPS compared to those untreated with agarwood oil. These results mean that agarwood oil has a strong potential to be developed into a formulated drug to be used by patients suffering from the disease or side effects of its current treatment.