Bark of Phellodendron chinense Schneid. (Rutaceae), called "Huang Bai" in China, is one of the 50 most used Chinese medicines in clinical practice. In this paper, a new isoquinoline alkaloid glycoside was isolated from P. chinense, and its structure was elucidated using spectroscopic method. The compound was eventually identified as (1S, 3"S)-1, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydro-7-hydroxy-1-[(4-hydroxybenzyl) methyl]-2-methyl-8-O-isoquinolinyl-[3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl]-β-D-glucopyranoside and named as Phellodendronoside A (PDA). The results of molecular docking showed that PDA could stably bind to an extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), stress-activated protein kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) proteins that are closely related to inflammation. Further, the anti-inflammatory activity of PDA was evaluated using the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced RAW264.7 macrophage model. We observed that PDA can effectively reduce the levels of nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and decrease the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). Moreover, we found that PDA inhibits the activation of ERK, JNK and p38MAPK proteins in the MAPK signaling pathway. Collectively, the present study demonstrates that PDA has excellent anti-inflammatory effect in vitro by inhibiting the overproduction of pro-inflammatory mediators, and its mechanism of action involves suppressing the activation of MAPK pathways, suggesting that PDA may be a potential agent for the treatment of inflammatory illness.
Keywords: Anti-inflammatory; MAPK pathway; Molecular docking; Phellodendron chinense; Phellodendronoside A.
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