Vol 12, Issue 4, 2019 Online - 2455-3891 Print - 0974-2441 COMBINATION OF LEPTIN ANALOG AND SALBUTAMOL: TREATMENT APPROACH FOR OBESITY-INDUCED ASTHMA ARUN K SONI 1 *, SHRIKALP S DESHPANDE 2 1 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad, Gujarat, India. 2 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, K. B. Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Kadi Sarva Vishwavidyalaya University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Email: arunsoni22889@gmail.com Received: 20 February 2019, Revised and Accepted: 23 March 2019 ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of leptin analog and salbutamol in obese asthmatic mice. Methods: Obese asthmatic condition was induced by administration of hypercaloric diet for 8 weeks followed by ovalbumin-aluminum hydroxide. The animals were treated with leptin analog (0.4 mg/kg, i.p. for 14 days) and salbutamol (2 mg/kg, PO for 14 days). Biochemical parameters such as serum leptin, ghrelin, and tumor necrosis factor-α and physical parameters such as tidal volume and airflow rate were estimated to confirm the state of asthma and obesity, respectively. Results: Elevated serum leptin and ghrelin were associated with leptin resistance in obese asthmatic mice. It was found that a significant increase in serum leptin level with animal treated with leptin analog and salbutamol when compared to animals treated with leptin analog alone. The result of respiratory parameters and serum parameters also improved with the combination of leptin analog and salbutamol. From our study, we found that salbutamol potentiates the effect of leptin analog in obese asthmatic condition. Conclusion: Leptin analog and salbutamol are an alternative treatment approach to treat the obese asthmatic condition. Keywords: Obesity, Asthma, Leptin analog, Salbutamol, Tumor necrosis factor alpha. INTRODUCTION Obesity is linked to the imbalance between energy expenditures [1]. It is due to excessive food intake with inactive lifestyle [2-4]. Obesity is one of the vital factors to worldwide for the burden of chronic sickness and disabilities. According to reports [5,6], over 1000 million adults worldwide are morbidly obese while of 300 million of them are clinically obese. Multiple factors contribute to the etiology are sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical activity and consumption of high energy-rich diet. The various study revealed that overall 20% men and 30% of females are obese worldwide [7]. The epidemic of obesity is becoming a universal problem, imposing considerable freight on the individual and society rising morbidity and mortality [8]. Asthma, a state of inflammation of airways involves different cells and cellular components such as eosinophils, somatic cells, lymphocytes, epithelial cells macrophages, and neutrophils; plays a crucial role in pathogenesis. These inflammatory cells cause repeated episodes of wheezing, dyspnea, chest tightness, coughing, and reversible airflow obstruction [9]. The inflammation results in elevated bronchial hyperresponsiveness to stimuli [10]. As of 2009, 300 million individuals globally were affected by asthma leading to approximately 250,000 deaths per annum [11]. Epidemiologists, after a detailed study on the asthmatic spectrum, detected different asthmatic phenotypes (different identical characteristics of disease) and genotypes (different pathological origins of identical disease) [12,13]. One in every of phenotypes is obesity-induced asthma [14]. Obesity with asthma has been strongly associated with both genders [15]. Studies revealed that obesity could increase asthma severity and reduced the efficacy of standard asthma medications [16,17]. Various clinical studies showed that over 3 million adults whose body mass index higher than 25 were diagnosed with asthma [18]. It is reported that abnormal leptin and ghrelin levels are associated with obesity and asthma [19,20]. Both hormones regulate food intake through acting on neuropeptide–Y pathway [21]. Various studies showed that obesity is due to either leptin resistance or elevated serum leptin level [7,22,23]. Clinical studies also revealed a higher level of leptin in asthmatic patients [24]. Reports also revealed that the pro- inflammatory effects of leptin are responsible for asthma in the obese population [25,26]. Thus, our investigation focuses on for effect of leptin analog with salbutamol in obese asthmatic mice. At present, there are no treatment options available for the obese asthmatic condition. Even those treatments used for asthma and obesity have numerous side effects and costly. Therefore, there is a need for identification of effective treatment approach for asthma with obesity. In this study, we investigated the effect of leptin analog and salbutamol through hypercaloric diet-induced obesity in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma in Swiss albino mice. METHODS Swiss albino mice of female sex weight in between 24±6 g were obtained from the central animal house of Faculty of Pharmacy, Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad. The animal studies were approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (DDU/FOP/06/17), ratified by the purpose of control and supervision of experimental animals (CPCSEA) by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi, India. Animals were naïve to drug treatment and experimentation at the beginning of all studies. Animals were kept individually in polypropylene cages in an environmentally controlled room of the animal house and maintained at a temperature of 25±2°C with a 12 h dark and light cycle. 10 days of acclimatization were provided to the animal. The animals were provided with water and food ad libitum. Mice were fed with laboratory pellet chow diet or © 2019 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4. 0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i4.33172 Research Article