Lycorine inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced iNOS and COX-2 up-regulation in RAW264.7 cells through suppressing P38 and STATs activation and increases the survival rate of mice after LPS challenge

All-Trans Retinoic Acid Ameliorates the Early Experimental Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Rats by Inhibiting the Loss of the Blood-Brain Barrier via the JNK/P38MAPK Signaling Pathway

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) influences the outcomes of cerebral ischemic reperfusion (CIR) injury, but the mechanism remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of ATRA on loss of the blood brain barrier (BBB) following CIR and to explore the possible mechanisms. Transient middle cerebral artery occlusion was performed on male SD rats to construct an in vivo CIR model. Neurological deficits, BBB permeability, brain edema, MRI and JNK/P38 MAPK proteins were detected at 24 h following CIR. We demonstrated that ATRA pretreatment could alleviate CIR-induced neurological deficits, increase of BBB permeability, infarct volume, degradation of tight junction proteins, inhibit MMP-9 protein expression and activity. ATRA treatment also reduced the p-P38 and p-JNK protein level. However the protective effect of ATRA on CIR could be reversed by administration of retinoic acid alpha receptor antagonist Ro41-5253. SP600125 and SB203580, which is the JNK/P38 pathway inhibitors has the same protective effect as ATRA. These results indicated that ATRA may inhibit the JNK/P38 MAPK pathway to alleviate BBB disruption and improve CIR outcomes.

Disease modifying anti-rheumatic activity of the alkaloid montanine on experimental arthritis and fibroblast-like synoviocytes

Montanine is an alkaloid isolated from Rhodophiala bifida bulb with potential anti-arthritic activity. In this context, we evaluated whether montanine has a disease modifying anti-rheumatic activity in two arthritis models and its effect in vitro on lymphocyte proliferation and on invasiveness of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). Antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) was performed in Balb/C mice with methylated bovine serum albumin, and nociception and leukocytes migration into the knee joint were evaluated. Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) was performed in DBA/1J mice, and arthritis development and severity were assessed by clinical and histological scoring and articular nociception. Montanine was administered intraperitoneally twice a day. Lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by concanavalin A in 48h was performed with MTT assay, while FLS invasion in 24h was assayed in a Matrigel-coated transwell system. Administration of montanine decreased nociception (P<0.001) and leukocyte articular migration (P<0.001) in mice with AIA. In mice with CIA, treatment with montanine reduced severity of arthritis and joint damage assessed by clinical (P<0.001) and histological (P<0.05) scores and ameliorated articular nociception (P<0.05). In vitro, montanine inhibited lymphocyte proliferation stimulated with ConA (P<0.001) and decreased FLS invasion (P<0.05) by 54%, with an action independent of cytotoxicity. Our findings suggest that montanine can be further explored as an innovative pharmacological approach for autoimmune diseases such as arthritis.

Phytochemical and biological investigations of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids: a review

Amaryllidaceae is a family that includes 75 genera and about 1100 species, which have a long history of medicinal use. Many plants have been proven to possess efficacy for neurological injury and inflammatory conditions. This article summarizes 357 Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, and cites 166 174 references over the last three decades. These alkaloids are classified into 14 skeleton types, and their abundant sources are also included. Modern pharmacology studies demonstrate that alkaloids that exclusively occur in Amaryllidaceae plant possess wide-ranging pharmacological actions, especially effects on the central nervous system, as well as antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activities. Effective monomeric compounds from Amaryllidaceae screened for pharmacological activity in vivo and in vitro are also summarized.

Antiproliferative activities of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids from Lycoris radiata targeting DNA topoisomerase I

Crude Amaryllidaceae alkaloids (AAs) extracted from Lycoris radiata are reported to exhibit significant anti-cancer activity. However, the specific alkaloids responsible for the pharmacodynamic activity and their targets still remain elusive. In this context, we strived to combine affinity ultrafiltration with topoisomerase I (Top I) as a target enzyme aiming to fish out specific bioactive AAs from Lycoris radiata. 11 AAs from Lycoris radiata were thus screened out, among which hippeastrine (peak 5) with the highest Enrichment factor (EF) against Top I exhibited good dose-dependent inhibition with IC₅₀ at 7.25 ± 0.20 μg/mL comparable to camptothecin (positive control) at 6.72 ± 0.23 μg/mL. The molecular docking simulation further indicated the inhibitory mechanism between Top I and hippeastrine. The in vitro antiproliferation assays finally revealed that hippeastrine strongly inhibited the proliferation of HT-29 and Hep G2 cells in an intuitive dose-dependent manner with the IC₅₀ values at 3.98 ± 0.29 μg/mL and 11.85 ± 0.20 μg/mL, respectively, and also induced significant cellular morphological changes, which further validated our screening method and the potent antineoplastic effects. Collectively, these results suggested that hippeastrine could be a very promising anticancer candidate for the therapy of cancer in the near future.

Lycorine protects cartilage through suppressing the expression of matrix metalloprotenases in rat chondrocytes and in a mouse osteoarthritis model

Extracellular matrix (ECM) degrading enzymes, including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), are critical for cartilage destruction in the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). Thus, identifying novel drugs, which suppress the synthesis of MMPs may facilitate the treatment of OA. The cytotoxicity of lycorine was determined using a CCK8 assay. The effects of lycorine on IL‑1β‑induced upregulation of MMPs and activation of mitogen‑activated protein kinase pathways were detected by western blot analysis and reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and Safranin O staining were used to evaluate the effect of lycorine in a mouse anterior cruciate ligament transection model. In the present study, it was demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that lycorine (LY) suppressed interleukin‑1β (IL‑1β)‑induced synthesis of MMP‑3 and MMP‑13 in vitro. Molecular analysis revealed that LY abrogated the phosphorylation of c‑Jun N‑terminal kinase (JNK) and the activation of the nuclear factor (NF)‑κB signaling pathway caused by IL‑1β stimulation. In addition, in vivo experiments in a mouse anterior cruciate ligament transection model confirmed the protective role of LY on cartilage. Taken together, the data obtained in the present study demonstrated that LY suppressed the IL‑1β‑induced expression of MMP‑3 and MMP‑13 through inhibition of the JNK and NF‑κB pathways, suggesting that LY may be used as a potential drug for the treatment of OA.

Lycorine suppresses RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis in vitro and prevents ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis and titanium particle-induced osteolysis in vivo

Osteoclasts play an important role in diseases involving bone loss. In this study, we assessed the effect of a plant-derived natural alkaloid (lycorine, or LY) on osteoclastogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Our in vitro study showed that receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclastogenesis could be inhibited by LY; this effect was due to inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling via MAP kinase kinases (MKKs). The MAPK agonist anisomycin could partially rescue the inhibitory effect of LY. Furthermore, LY also played a protective role in both a murine ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis model and a titanium particle-induced osteolysis model. These results confirmed that LY was effective in preventing osteoclast-related diseases in vivo. In conclusion, our results show that LY is effective in suppressing osteoclastogenesis and therefore could be used to treat OVX-induced osteoporosis and wear particle-induced osteolysis.

Intimacy of the niche: perivascular remodeling cuddles incoming HSCs

Stem cells reside in "niches," which provide signaling cues necessary for self-renewal. In a recent issue of Cell, Tamplin et al. (2015) perform live imaging of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and find dynamic remodeling of endothelial cells is triggered upon arrival of HSPCs at the caudal hematopoietic tissue.

Hematopoietic stem cell arrival triggers dynamic remodeling of the perivascular niche

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) can reconstitute and sustain the entire blood system. We generated a highly specific transgenic reporter of HSPCs in zebrafish. This allowed us to perform high-resolution live imaging on endogenous HSPCs not currently possible in mammalian bone marrow. Using this system, we have uncovered distinct interactions between single HSPCs and their niche. When an HSPC arrives in the perivascular niche, a group of endothelial cells remodel to form a surrounding pocket. This structure appears conserved in mouse fetal liver. Correlative light and electron microscopy revealed that endothelial cells surround a single HSPC attached to a single mesenchymal stromal cell. Live imaging showed that mesenchymal stromal cells anchor HSPCs and orient their divisions. A chemical genetic screen found that the compound lycorine promotes HSPC-niche interactions during development and ultimately expands the stem cell pool into adulthood. Our studies provide evidence for dynamic niche interactions upon stem cell colonization. PAPERFLICK:

Plant-derived immunomodulators: an insight on their preclinical evaluation and clinical trials

The phagocyte-microbe interactions in the immune system is a defense mechanism but when excessively or inappropriately deployed can harm host tissues and participate in the development of different non-immune and immune chronic inflammatory diseases such as autoimmune problems, allergies, some rheumatoid disorders, cancers and others. Immunodrugs include organic synthetics, biological agents such as cytokines and antibodies acting on single targets or pathways have been used to treat immune-related diseases but with limited success. Most of immunostimulants and immunosuppressants in clinical use are the cytotoxic drugs which possess serious side effects. There is a growing interest to use herbal medicines as multi-component agents to modulate the complex immune system in the prevention of infections rather than treating the immune-related diseases. Many therapeutic effects of plant extracts have been suggested to be due to their wide array of immunomodulatory effects and influence on the immune system of the human body. Phytochemicals such as flavonoids, polysaccharides, lactones, alkaloids, diterpenoids and glycosides, present in several plants, have been reported to be responsible for the plants immunomodulating properties. Thus the search for natural products of plant origin as new leads for development of potent and safe immunosuppressant and immunostimulant agents is gaining much major research interest. The present review will give an overview of widely investigated plant-derived compounds (curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechol-3-gallate, quercetin, colchicine, capsaicin, andrographolide, and genistein) which have exhibited potent effects on cellular and humoral immune functions in pre-clinical investigations and will highlight their clinical potential.

Mechanistic Insights to the Cytotoxicity of Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids

With over 500 individual compounds, the Amaryllidaceae alkaloids represent a large and structurally diverse group of phytochemicals. Coupled to this structural diversity is the significant array of biological properties manifested by many of its members, of which their relevance in motor neuron disease and cancer chemotherapy has attracted considerable attention. To this extent, galanthamine has evolved into a successful commercial drug for Alzheimer's disease since its approval by the FDA in 2001. Concurrently, there have been several positive indicators for the emergence of an anticancer drug from the Amaryllidaceae due to the potency of several of its representatives as cell line specific antiproliferative agents. In this regard, the phenanthridones such as pancratistatin and narciclasine have offered most promise since their advancement into clinical trials, following which there has been renewed interest in the cytotoxic properties of these alkaloids. Given this background, this review seeks to highlight the various mechanisms which have been invoked to corroborate the cytotoxic effects of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids.

Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Phenolic-Enriched Extracts of Smilax glabra

Smilax glabra Roxb. has been used for a long time as both food and folk medicine. In the present study, phenolic-enriched extract of S. glabra (PEESG) was extracted with 70% ethanol and purified by HP-20 column chromatography. Its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated by radical scavenging assay, reducing power determination, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 cells assays, respectively. PEESG exhibited obviously scavenging capacity for DPPH and ABTS radicals, as well as significant reducing power for ferric ion. Particularly, PEESG (12.5–50 μg/mL) showed a significantly higher efficiency for scavenging ABTS than that of ascorbic acid and no significant difference with ascorbic acid for DPPH scavenging. PEESG also possessed a significant suppression effect on proinflammatory mediators production, such as nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. In addition, the main ingredients of PEESG were identified using ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray mass spectrometry (U-HPLC-ESI-MS). Seventeen components, including 5-O-caffeoylshikimic acid, neoastilbin, astilbin, neoisoastilbin, isoastilbin, engetin and isoengeletin were identified. These findings strongly suggest the potential of PEESG as a natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent.

Rapid and sensitive HPLC-MS/MS method for quantitative determination of lycorine from the plasma of rats

A simple, rapid and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (HPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for determining lycorine in rat plasma. Plasma samples were prepared by a simple protein precipitation with methanol containing dextrorphan as internal standard. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Kromasil 60-5CN column (3 μm, 2.1 mm × 150 mm) with the mobile phase of methanol/water (containing 0.1% formic acid) (40:60, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min, the total analytical runtime was 5 min. The detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer equipped with Electronic Spray Ion by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) of the transitions at m/z 288.1→147.1 for lycorine and m/z 258.1→157.2 for dextrorphan, respectively. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 1-1000 ng/mL with the lower limit of quantification of 1 ng/mL for lycorine. The intra- and inter-day precision (R.S.D.%) were less than 8.5% and accuracy (R.E.%) was within ±7.0%. Lycorine was sufficiently stable under all relevant analytical conditions. This method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of lycorine in rats after intraperitoneal administration with different doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg.

Cepharanthine, an alkaloid from Stephania cepharantha Hayata, inhibits the inflammatory response in the RAW264.7 cell and mouse models

The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of cepharanthine (CEP) on inflammation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells in vitro and a LPS-induced lung injury model in vivo. RAW264.7 cells were treated with various concentrations of CEP for 1 h followed by incubation with or without 1 μg/ml LPS for 18 h. TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in the supernatants were measured by ELISA. Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways were analyzed by Western blot. Mice were randomly divided into control group, LPS group, CEP + LPS group, and dexamethasone + LPS group. A male BALB/c mouse model of acute lung injury was induced by LPS. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was collected for inflammatory cell count and cytokine assays. Histopathologic examination was performed on mice that were not subjected to bronchoalveolar lavage fluid collection. CEP dose-dependently inhibited the release of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Significantly, CEP dose-dependently suppressed NF-κB activation, IκBα degradation, and phosphorylation of ERK, JNK, and p38 induced by LPS. In vivo, it was also observed that CEP attenuated lung histopathologic changes and down-regulated the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, in the mouse acute lung injury model. These results suggest that CEP potentially decreases inflammation in vitro and in vivo and might be a therapeutic agent against inflammatory diseases.

Cytotoxicity Studies of Lycorine Alkaloids of the Amaryllidaceae

The plant family Amaryllidaceae is renowned for its unique alkaloid constituents which possess a significant array of structural diversity. Several of these alkaloids are known for their interesting biological properties, of which galanthamine and pancratistatin have acquired a privileged status due to their relevance in the pharmaceutical arena. In particular, galanthamine represents the first prescription drug emanating from the Amaryllidaceae after its approval by the FDA in 2001 for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Following on this commercial success there have been sustained projections for the emergence of an anticancer agent related to pancratistatin due to the potency, selectivity, low toxicity and high tolerability typifying targets of this series of alkaloids. The lycorine series of alkaloids have also garnered widespread interest as cytotoxic agents and were amongst the earliest of the Amaryllidaceae constituents to exhibit such activity. To date over 100 of such naturally-occurring or synthetically-derived alkaloids have been screened for cytotoxic effects against a number of cancer cell lines. This survey examines the cytotoxic properties of lycorine alkaloids, highlights the outcomes of structure-activity relationship orientated studies and affords plausible insights to the mechanistic rationale behind these effects.

Multiple biological functions and pharmacological effects of lycorine

Lycorine is the major active component from the amaryllidaceae family plant Lycoris radiate, a represent traditional Chinese medicinal herb, and is one of the typical alkaloids with pyrrolophenanthridine nucleus core. Lycorine has drawn great interest in medicinal field due to its divergent chemical structures and multiple biological functions, as well as pharmacological effects on various diseases. Accumulated evidence shows that lycorine not only possesses strong pharmacological effects on many diseases, including anti-leukemia, anti-tumor, anti-angiogenesis, anti-virus, anti-bacteria, anti-inflammation, and antimalaria, but also exerts many other biological functions, such as inhibition of acetylcholinesterase and topoisomerase, suppression of ascorbic acid biosynthesis, and control of circadian period length. Notably, lycorine exhibits its numerous pharmacological effects on various diseases with very low toxicity and mild side effects. The divergent chemical structures, multiple biological functions, and very low toxicity of lycorine imply that the agent is a potential drug candidate that warrants for further preclinical and clinic investigation.

Amaryllidaceae and Sceletium alkaloids

Covering: July 2010 to June 2012. Previous review: Nat. Prod. Rep., 2011, 28, 1126-1142. Recent progress on the isolation, identification, biological activity and synthetic studies of structurally diverse alkaloids from plants of the family Amaryllidaceae is summarized in this review. In addition, the structurally related alkaloids isolated from Sceletium species are discussed as well.

Naturally derived anti-inflammatory compounds from Chinese medicinal plants

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Though inflammatory response is beneficial to body damage repair, if it is out of control, it can produce adverse effects on the body. Although purely western anti-inflammatory drugs, orthodox medicines, can control inflammation occurrence and development, it is not enough. The clinical efficacy of anti-inflammation therapies is unsatisfactory, thus the search for new anti-inflammation continues. Chinese Material Medica (CMM) remains a promising source of new therapeutic agents. CMM and herbal formulae from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), unorthodox medicines, play an improtant anti-inflammatory role in multi-targets, multi-levels, and multi-ways in treating inflammation diseases in a long history in China, based on their multi-active ingredient characteristics. Due to these reasons, recently, CMM has been commercialized as an anti-inflammation agent which has become increasingly popular in the world health drug markets. Major research contributions in ethnopharmacology have generated vast amount of data associated with CMM in anti-inflammtion aspect. Therefore, a systematic introduction of CMM anti-inflammatory research progress is of great importance and necessity.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This paper strives to describe the progress of CMM in the treatment of inflammatory diseases from different aspects, and provide the essential theoretical support and scientific evidence for the further development and utilization of CMM resources as a potential anti-inflammation drug through a variety of databases.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Literature survey was performed via electronic search (SciFinder®, Pubmed®, Google Scholar and Web of Science) on papers and patents and by systematic research in ethnopharmacological literature at various university libraries.

RESULTS

This review mainly introduced the current research on the anti-inflammatory active ingredient, anti-inflammatory effects of CMM, their mechanism, anti-inflammatory drug development of CMM, and toxicological information.

CONCLUSION

CMM is used clinically to treat inflammation symptoms in TCM, and its effect is mediated by multiple targets through multiple active ingredients. Although scholars around the world have made studies on the anti-inflammatory studies of CMM from different pathways and aspects and have made substantial progress, further studies are warranted to delineate the inflammation actions in more cogency models, establish the toxicological profiles and quality standards, assess the potentials of CMM in clinical applications, and make more convenient preparations easy to administrate for patients. Development of the clinically anti-inflammatory drugs are also warranted.

Nonaqueous CE ESI-IT-MS analysis of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids

The Amaryllidaceae are widely distributed medical plants. Lycorine, lycoramine, lycoremine, and lycobetaine are the major active alkaloids in Amaryllidaceae plants. A nonaqueous CE ESI-IT-MS method for separation, identification, and quantification of the Amaryllidaceae alkaloids has been developed. The MS(1-3) behavior has been studied and the fragmentation pathways of main fragment ions have been proposed. The effects of several factors such as composition and concentration of buffer, applied voltage, composition, and flow rate of the sheath liquid, nebulizing gas pressure, flow rate, and temperature of drying gas were investigated. Under the optimal conditions, the linear concentration range of these compounds was wide with the correlation coefficient (R(2) ) >0.99. RSDs of migration time and peak areas were <10%. The LODs were <240 ng/mL. The proposed method can be successfully applied to the determination of the related alkaloids in the Lycoris radiata roots.