Glycyrrhizin binds to high-mobility group box 1 protein and inhibits its cytokine activities.

High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) is a nuclear component, but extracellularly it serves as a signaling molecule involved in acute and chronic inflammation, for example in sepsis and arthritis. The identification of HMGB1 inhibitors is therefore of significant experimental and clinical interest. We show that glycyrrhizin, a natural anti-inflammatory and antiviral triterpene in clinical use, inhibits HMGB1 chemoattractant and mitogenic activities, and has a weak inhibitory effect on its intranuclear DNA-binding function. NMR and fluorescence studies indicate that glycyrrhizin binds directly to HMGB1 (K(d) approximately 150 microM), interacting with two shallow concave surfaces formed by the two arms of both HMG boxes. Our results explain in part the anti-inflammatory properties of glycyrrhizin, and might direct the design of new derivatives with improved HMGB1-binding properties.

Several nuclear events during apoptosis depend on caspase-3 activation but do not constitute a common pathway.

A number of nuclear events occur during apoptosis, including DNA laddering, nuclear lamina breakdown, phosphorylation of histones H2B and histone H2AX, and the tight binding to chromatin of HMGB1 and CAD, the nuclease responsible for DNA laddering. We have performed an epistasis analysis to investigate whether these events cluster together in pathways. We find that all depend directly or indirectly on caspase-3 activation. CAD activation, H2AX phosphorylation and DNA laddering cluster together into a pathway, but all other events appear to be independent of each other downstream of caspase-3, and likely evolved subject to different functional pressures.