HIV-1 Tat-induced diarrhea is improved by the PPARalpha agonist, palmitoylethanolamide, by suppressing the activation of enteric glia

Giovanni Sarnelli, Luisa Seguella, Marcella Pesce, Jie Lu, Stefano Gigli, Eugenia Bruzzese, Roberta Lattanzi, Alessandra D'Alessandro, Rosario Cuomo, Luca Steardo, Giuseppe Esposito. J Neuroinflammation. 2018 Mar 24;15(1):94.

Laboratory studyOther animals

Design

Laboratory study

Subjects

Rats given intracolonic HIV-1 Tat protein to induce diarrhea; PPARalpha-knockout mice also used

Dose used in the study

PEA given intraperitoneally, alone or with PPAR antagonists, from day 2 to day 7 after Tat administration

Duration

7 days

What was measured

Enteric glial activation markers (S100B, iNOS, NF-kB, TLR4, GFAP), diarrhoea, and endogenous PEA levels

What the authors reported

HIV-1 Tat protein caused rapid-onset diarrhoea and enteric glial activation, raising TLR4, NF-kB, S100B and iNOS. PEA reduced diarrhoea and glial-driven inflammation through a PPARalpha-dependent mechanism in wild-type rats, but had no effect in PPARalpha-knockout mice.

Limits of this study

A rat and mouse model; it cannot show effect in people with HIV-related diarrhea. Funding and conflicts not stated in the abstract beyond a note on ethics approval.

Source

PubMed 29573741 · doi:10.1186/s12974-018-1126-4

Entry checked against the abstract on PubMed on 2026-09-22. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.