Ivermectin contributes to attenuating the severity of acute lung injury in mice

Ivermectin has been proposed as a potential anti-inflammatory drug in addition to its antiparasitic activity. Here we investigated the potential role of ivermectin in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI) using the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- or bleomycin (BLM)-induced mice models. Male C57BL/6 mice were given ivermectin orally every day for the remainder of the experiment at doses of 1 or 2 mg/kg after 24 h of LPS or BLM treatment. Ivermectin reversed severe lung injury caused by LPS or BLM challenge, including mortality, changes in diffuse ground-glass and consolidation shadows on lung CT imaging, lung histopathological scores, lung wet/dry ratio, and protein content in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Furthermore, ivermectin also reduced total lung BALF inflammatory cells, infiltrating neutrophils, myeloperoxidase activity, and plasma TNF-α and IL-6 levels in mice treated with LPS or BLM. Finally, the mechanism study showed that LPS or BLM administration increased JNK, ERK1/2, and p38 MAPK phosphorylation while decreasing IκBα expression, an inhibitor of NF-κB. However, ivermectin increased IκBα expression but blocked elevated phosphorylated JNK and p38 MAPK, not ERK1/2, in both ALI mice. These findings suggested that ivermectin may alleviate ALI caused by LPS or BLM in mice, partly via lowering the inflammatory response, which is mediated at least by the inhibition of MAPK and NF-κB signaling. Collectively, ivermectin might be used to treat acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome.