BACKGROUNDHelicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection could lead to most gastroduodenal diseases and is even identified as a carcinogen of gastric cancer. Total alkaloids of sophora alopecuroides (TASA) is widely used in herbal remedies to treat various infectious diseases, including stomach-associated diseases. This study is aimed at evaluating the antimicrobial activity of TASA on H. pylori-infected BALB/c mice mouse gastritis.

METHODSTotally 120 BALB/c mice were orally inoculated with H. pylori Bacterial liquid to construct BALB/c mice H. pylori infection gastritis animal model, after the model was successfully created. We randomly assigned 100 infected mice into 10 treatment groups, the first group (normal saline); the second group (bismuth pectin); the third group (omeprazole); the fourth group (TASA 2 mg/d); the fifth group (TASA 4 mg/d); the sixth group (TASA 5 mg/d); the seventh group (TASA + bismuth pectin); the eighth group (TASA + omeprazole); the ninth group (bismuth pectin + clarithromycin + metronidazole); the tenth group (omeprazole + clarithromycin + metronidazole), 5 other non-infected mice as negative control. Mice were orally inoculated twice a day and 7 days continuously. Then the mice were killed 4 weeks after treatment, we used realtime PCR to detect 16sDNA of H. pylori to test both the colonization and the clearance mice of bacteria of each treatment. We applied hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and immunostaining of mice gastric mucosa to observe the general inflammation and related factors interleukin 8 (IL-8), cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2), and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) expression change after treatments.

RESULTSFirstly, we ensured that after 6-week intragastric administration, the bacteria colonization reached an exceed peak which is far higher than positive threshold (P < 0.001); secondly, after treatments, it is revealed that TASA combined with omeprazole or bismuth pectin showed promising antimicrobial activity against H. pylori as well as conventional triple therapy (P < 0.001); thirdly, HE staining showed that the inflammation on mice gastric mucosal membrane were also relieved obviously in TASA combined treatments and conventional triple therapy compared with normal saline treated mice, moreover, from immunohistochemistry results, H. pylori-induced IL-8, COX-2, and NF-κB were consistently suppressed in seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth group to a certain extent.

CONCLUSIONThese results open the possibility of taking TASA as an anti-inflammatory agent for H. pylori gastritis.