Several natural products have been investigated for their bactericidal potential, among these, cinnamaldehyde. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the activity of cinnamaldehyde in the treatment of animals with sepsis induced by extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli. Initially, the E. coli F5 was incubated with cinnamaldehyde to evaluate the minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentration. Animal survival was monitored for five days, and a subset of mice were euthanized after 10 h to evaluate histological, hematological, and immunological parameters, as well as the presence of bacteria in the organs. On the one hand, inoculation of bacterium caused the death of 100% of the animals within 24 h after infection. On the other hand, cinnamaldehyde (60 mg/kg) was able to keep 40% of mice alive after infection. The treatment significantly reduced the levels of cytokines in serum and peritoneum and increased the production of cells in both bone marrow and spleen, as well as lymphocytes at the infection site. Cinnamaldehyde was able to reduce tissue damage by decreasing the deleterious effects for the organism and contributed to the control of the sepsis and survival of animals; therefore, it is a promising candidate for the development of new drugs.
Keywords: Escherichia coli; cinnamaldehyde; inflammation; sepsis.