Andrographis paniculata as a potential immunostimulant in cyprinus carpio against aeromonas hydrophila infection

Abstract

Aquaculture makes a significant contribution in the production of protein-rich food for human consumption. In recent years aquaculture sector is facing many challenges. Intensive fish farming system makes a stressful condition which leads to reduced growth rate, immunosuppression, rendering the fish highly susceptible to infectious diseases. A number of approaches have been applied to address this problem including sanitary prophylaxis, vaccination, disinfection, and chemotherapy with particular emphasis on the use of antibiotics. However, there are practical difficulties and undesirable consequences associated with some of these approaches. In this context use of herbal immunostimulants has been proposed as potential preventive measure for improving survival by increasing immune response. The objective of the present study was to investigate the immunomodulatory effect of chloroform, methanol and aqueous extract of Andrographis paniculata in Cyprinus carpio administered intraperitoneally and orally with reference to non specific, specific immune response and disease resistance and assess the pharmacological activities of the extracts in murine model. The non specific immune response was studied interms of serum lysozyme, myeloperoxidase, antiprotease, bactericidal, reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) and cellular myeloperoxidase activity. The specific immune response was assessed in terms of antibody response to heat killed A. hydrophila by bacterial agglutination assay and ELISA. In nonspecific immune response fish was administered intraperitoneally with 4, 40 and 400 mg Kg-1 doses of A.paniculata extract. After seven days interval, blood was collected from the common cordinal vein and serum was separated and various immunological assays were assessed. The results showed that, all the extracts significantly enhanced the non specific immune response. newline