Abstract
Medicines, their safety, effectiveness and quality are indispensable factors of national security, important on a global scale. The COVID-19 pandemic has once again emphasized the importance of improving the immune response of the body in the face of severe viral infections. Plants from the Salvia L. genus have long been used in traditional medicine for treatment of inflammatory processes, parasitic diseases, bacterial and viral infections. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of plant extracts LS-1, LS-2 from Salvia deserta Schang. and LS-3, LS-4 from Salvia sclarea L. plants growing in southern Kazakhstan by conventional and ultrasonic-assisted extraction, respectively. The cytotoxic effects of the named sage extracts on neonatal human dermal fibroblasts (HDFn) were evaluated using the MTT assay. Immunomodulatory effects of the studied extracts were compared by examining their influence on pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and phagocytic activity of murine immune cells. Depending on the physiological state of the innate immune cells, sage extracts LS-2 and LS-3 had either a stimulating effect on inactivated macrophages or suppressed cytokine-producing activity in LPS-activated macrophages. The greatest increase in TNF-α secretion was found after treatment of spleen T lymphocytes with sage extract LS-2, obtained by ultrasonic-assisted extraction.