Bronco T (Shirisadi kasaya), a polyherbal formulation prevents LPS induced septicemia in rats

OBJECTIVE: Here, Bronco T (BT), a polyherbal formulation developed in 1984 for treating asthma, has been repurposed against septicemia-induced ALI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Lipopolysac-charides (3 mg/kg BW) were injected intraperito-neally before 24 hours of surgery to assess the cardiorespiratory parameters, blood PaO2/FiO2 and MPO, pulmonary water content and histo-logical changes in the lungs. The pentoxifylline (PTX) (25 mg/kg BW) was used as the positive control and given one hour before LPS. BT was given 3 hours (orally at different doses of 3, 1.5 and 0.75 g/kg BW) before LPS. RESULTS: The LPS treated group showed sig-nificant bradypnea, hypotension and bradycar- dia, through elongated peaks (RR) and (MAP) re-spectively and finally death after 95 minutes of LPS injection. The PTX and BT (3 g/kg BW) pre-treatment significantly prevented these changes (dose-dependent in the BT group). The surviv-al in these groups was maintained up to 190 min after LPS. The Pentoxifylline showed a better re-sponse (75%) than Bronco T (72%). In both the treatments, a significant decrease in pulmonary water content and minimal neutrophil infiltration and intact alveoli-capillary membrane was seen in the transverse section (T.S) of the lungs. CONCLUSIONS: Significant improvement was noted in survival time with lesser tissue dam-age and improved pulmonary function was ob-served by pre-treating with Bronco T in LPS in-duced septicemia.