Phosphorylcholine-tuftsin compound prevents development of dextransulfate-sodium-salt induced murine colitis: Implications for the treatment of human inflammatory bowel disease

•Prophylactic treatment of DSS induced colitis with tuftsin-phosphorylcholine.•(TPC) prevented the severity of colitis exemplified in DAI score reduction, less shortening and destruction of the colon.•Prophylactic treatment of DSS induced colitis with tuftsin-phosphorylcholine (TPC) prevented the severity of colitis.•TPC inhibited pro-inflammatory cytokines expression, and enhanced anti-inflammatory cytokine expression by the colon tissue.

Improved clinical findings of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) upon treatment with helminthes and their ova were proven in animal models of IBD and in human clinical studies. The immunomodulatory properties of several helminthes were attributed to the phosphorylcholine (PC) molecule. We assessed the therapeutic potential of tuftsin-PC conjugate (TPC) to attenuate murine colitis. Colitis was induced by Dextransulfate-Sodium-Salt (DSS) in drinking water. TPC was given by daily oral ingestion (50 μg/0.1 ml/mouse or PBS) starting at day −2. Disease activity index (DAI) score was followed daily and histology of the colon was performed by H&E staining. Analysis of the cytokines profile in distal colon lysates was performed by immunoblot. Treatment of DSS induced colitis with TPC prevented the severity of colitis, including a reduction in the DAI score, less shortening of the colon and less inflammatory activity in histology. The immunoblot showed that the colitis preventive activity of TPC was associated with downregulation of colon pro-inflammatory IL-1β, TNFα and IL-17 cytokines expression, and enhancement of anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokine expression. In the current study, we demonstrated that TPC treatment can prevent significantly experimental colitis induction in naïve mice. We propose the TPC as a novel potential small synthetic molecule to treat colitis.