JCI Insight: Ginger may be expected to treat specific autoimmune diseases

January 11, 2021 // -- Natural or herbal remedies are now very popular, especially among young people, but it is not clear how much of them are scientifically based; ginger is known to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which may make it a very popular herbal supplement to treat inflammatory diseases in humans.
In a recent study published in the international journal JCI Insight, scientists from the University of Michigan and other institutions found that as the main bioactive compound in ginger roots, 6-gingerol is therapeutically resistant to molecular mechanisms that induce specific autoimmune diseases in mice;
in mice with antiphospholipid syndrome or lupus, 6-curcumics block the release of neutral granulocyte extracellular trapping nets, which can be induced by autoantibodies produced by the disease.
researcher Dr Ramadan Ali said neutrogenic granulocyte extracellular trapping webs (NETs) come from white blood cells called neutrogenic granulocytes, which form a viscous cobweb-like structure when autoantibodies interact with the subjects on the surface of neutrogenic granulocytes.
these mesh structures play a key role in the pathological manifestations of lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome, which induce the formation of autoantibodies and promote blood clotting and damage effects.
image source: CC0 Public Domain So, will the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger extend to neutral granulocytes? Specifically, can this natural drug block nexus cells from forming NETs that contribute to disease progression? 'Preclinical studies in mouse bodies provide us with a surprising and very exciting answer,' said researcher Ali.
Ali said they found that when 6-curcumic acid was given, NETs levels in mice's bodies were reduced;
The most surprising finding of the researchers was that the body's autoantibodies were reduced regardless of whether the mice had antiphospholipid syndrome or lupus, suggesting that the inflammatory cycle, autoantibodies that stimulate the production of more autoantibodies, and the stimulation of NEWTs, were destroyed.
, M.D., says I haven't learned much about supplements in my years of medical practice, but many patients will ask me questions about it.
When Ramadan brought this concept to me, I enthusiastically started working in the lab because I understood that it was important to provide good advice to patients.
Although the study was conducted in mouse models, researcher Ali and colleagues believe that preclinical data suggest that 6-curcumics have anti-neutral granulocyte properties, which may protect the body from the progression of autoimmune diseases, thus facilitating more clinical trials in the future; One approach doesn't seem to work for everyone; but we wanted to know if there was a subpopulation of autoimmune diseases that carried overactive neutral granulocytes that benefited from increased intake of 6-curcumia, especially in studies before and after the treatment, so that researchers could identify subpopulations of patients who were more likely to benefit.
this biologically active compound is not the primary treatment for people with antiphospholipid syndrome or lupus, but researchers are interested in the fact that this natural supplement may help people at high risk of developing the disease.
if 6-curcub can also be shown to be a protective agent in humans, patients who carry autoantibodies but do not activate the disease may benefit from the treatment, Ali said.
with active diseases will ingest blood thinners, but what if one day a natural supplement could help reduce the clots produced by the body? And what if we could reduce the body's autoantibodies? This may have special benefits for the treatment of diseases.
() Original source: Ramadan A. Ali, Alex A. Gandhi, Lipeng Dai, et al. Anti-neutrophil properties of natural gingerols in models of lupus, JCI Insight (2020). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.138385