Oleuropein-Rich Leaf Extract as a Broad Inhibitor of Tumour and Macrophage iNOS in an Apc Mutant Rat Model

Oleuropein, the major compound found in olive leaves, has been reported to exert numerous pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects. The purpose of this study was to evaluate, for the first time, the effect of oleuropein-rich leaf extracts (ORLE) in already-developed colon tumours arising in Apc (adenomatous polyposis coli) mutated PIRC rats (F344/NTac-Ap(cam1137)). Here, we were able to investigate in parallel the anti-cancer effect of ORLE, both in vivo and in vitro, and its anti-inflammatory effect on macrophages, representing a critical and abundant population in most solid tumour microenvironment. We found that in vivo ORLE treatment promoted apoptosis and attenuated iNOS activity both in colon tumours as in peritoneal macrophages of PIRC rats. We this confirmed in vitro using primary RAW264.7 cells: ORLE reduced iNOS activity in parallel with COX-2 and pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6 and TGF-β. These findings suggest that ORLE possess a strong anti-inflammatory activity, which could be crucial for dampening the pro-tumourigenic activity elicited by a chronic inflammatory state generated by either tumour cells or tumour-associated macrophages.