Effects of Encapsulation of Caesalpinia sappan L. with Cyclodextrins for Bovine Mastitis.

The main components of Caesalpinia sappan L. (CS) are brazilin and brazilein, which show high potential in pharmacologic applications. However, these have been drastically limited by the poor water solubility and stability. The present study investigates the formation of inclusion complexes F1, F2, and F3 between CS and ß-cyclodextrin (ßCD), hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin (HPßCD), and methyl-ß-cyclodextrin (MßCD), respectively. These complexes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The results showed that the highest encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of CS extract were 44.24% and 9.67%, respectively. The solubility and stability of CS extract were significantly increased through complexation in phase solubility and stability studies. The complexes F1-F3 showed mainly significant antibacterial activities on gram-positive bacteria pathogens causing mastitis. Moreover, the expression levels of COX-2 and iNOS were significantly decreased in LPS-induced inflammatory cells at concentrations of 50 and 100 µg/mL. In addition, treatment of complex F3 (CS/MßCD) in bovine endothelial cells remarkably increased the chemokine gene expression of CXCL3 and CXCL8, which were responsible for immune cell recruitment (9.92 to 11.17 and 8.23 to 9.51-fold relative to that of the LPS-treated group, respectively). This study provides a complete characterization of inclusion complexes between CS extract and ßCD, HPßCD, and MßCD for the first time, highlighting the impact of complex formation on the pharmacologic activities of bovine mastitis.

Cucurbitacin B Induces Hypermethylation of Oncogenes in Breast Cancer Cells.

Breast cancer is a complex disease driven by multiple factors including both genetic and epigenetic alterations. Recent studies revealed that abnormal gene expression induced by epigenetic changes including aberrant promoter methylation plays a critical role in human breast carcinogenesis. Cucurbitacin B has antiproliferative activity against various human breast cancer cells, but the molecular mechanism is not completely understood. In this study, we explore the influence of cucurbitacin B from Trichosanthes cucumerina on the methylation status at the promoter of oncogenes c-Myc, cyclin D1, and survivin in breast cancer cell lines. Growth inhibitory effect of cucurbitacin B on breast cancer cells was assessed by MTT assay and colony formation assay. Methylation status of genomic DNA was determined by methylation-specific PCR. Gene and protein expression levels of all genes studied were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR and western blot. The results indicated that cucurbitacin B could inhibit cell growth in breast cancer cells. The oncogene promoters are usually hypomethylated in cancer cells. Upon cucurbitacin B treatment, upregulation of DNMT1 and obvious heavy methylation in the promoters of c-Myc, cyclin D1, and survivin, which consequently downregulated the expression of all these oncogenes, were observed. Hence, cucurbitacin B proved to be a potential cancer therapeutic agent, in part by inducing hypermethylation and silences the oncogenic activation.

A new pyrrole alkaloid from the roots of Cissampelos pareira.

Phytochemical investigation of the roots of Cissampelos pareira Linn. led to the isolation of one new pyrrole alkaloid, cissampeline (1), together with ten known alkaloids, (-)-curine (2), (-)-cyclanoline (3), (+)-tetrandrine (4), (+)-obaberine (5), (+)-obamegine (6), (-)-oblongine (7), (+)-homoaromoline (8), (-)-nor-N׳-chondrocurine (9), trans-N-feruloyltyramine (10) and (+)-coclaurine (11). Their structures were elucidated by extensive NMR and MS spectroscopic analyses. Interestingly, compound 1 represents the first example of pyrrole alkaloid found in the genus Cissampelos. Moreover, compounds 5-11 were isolated for the first time from this genus. Among them, compound 6 showed the highest anti-acetylcholinesterase activity with an IC50 value of 3.26 µM, whereas compound 8 displayed the most potent cytotoxicity against human colon cancer (HT29) cells with an IC50 value of 7.89 µM.

New triterpenoid saponin glycosides from the fruit fibers of Trichosanthes cucumerina L.

Five new triterpenoid saponin glycosides, trichocucumerisides A-E (1-5), together with eleven known compounds (6-16) were isolated from Trichosanthes cucumerina fruit fibers. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by detailed analysis of NMR and mass spectroscopic data as well as chemical reactions. The anti-inflammatory study against nitric oxide (NO) production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells shows that compounds 7 and 9 exhibited stronger NO inhibitory activity, with IC50 values of 3.0 and 2.7 µM, respectively, with comparison to positive references Celecoxib and aminoguanidine (IC50 values 75.7 and 75.0 µM, respectively). Compounds 7 and 9 also possessed a greater selectivity index (SI) of approximately 3-4-fold activity than that of the positive references.

A Bioreductive Prodrug of Cucurbitacin B Significantly Inhibits Tumor Growth in the 4T1 Xenograft Mice Model.

Cucurbitacin B (CuB), a highly cytotoxic constituent of the Cucurbitaceae plant, was identified to exhibit potent inhibitory activity against human cancer cells as well as normal cells. This disadvantage hampers the possibility of developing this compound into an anticancer drug candidate. In this work, several bioreductive prodrugs of CuB were designed to reduce toxicity to normal cells while maintaining the cytotoxic effect to cancer cells. Embedded with a bioreductive delivery and cleavable system in cancer tissues, cucurbitacin B-based prodrugs 1, 2, and 3 were synthesized and evaluated by in vitro and in vivo experiments. Compared with the parent CuB, prodrug 1 was found to significantly reduce the toxicity down to 310-fold lower against noncancerous cells. LC-MS analyses show that prodrug 1 efficiently releases the parent compound in the reductase-overexpressed MCF-7 cells. In addition, prodrug 1 shows satisfactory and comparable effectiveness in controlling tumor growth as that by tamoxifen in the 4T1 xenograft mice model.

A New Ajmaline-type Alkaloid from the Roots of Rauvolfia serpentina.

A new ajmaline-type alkaloid, 21-Ο-methylisoajmaline (1), together with twenty-one known compounds, a mixture of ß-sitosterol (2) and stigmasterol (3), reserpinine (4); tetrahydroalstonine (5), reserpine (6), venoterpine (7), yohimbine (8), 6'-O-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoyl)glomeratose A (9), isoajmaline (10), 3-epi-α-yohimbine (11), methyl 3,4,5-trimethoxy-trans-cinnamate (12), a mixture of ß-sitosterol 3-Ο-ß-D-glucopyranoside (13) and stigmasterol 3-Ο-ß-D- glucopyranoside (14), rescidine (15), 7-deoxyloganic acid (16), ajmaline (17), suaveoline (18), (+)-tetraphyllicine (19), loganic acid (20), 3-hydroxysarpagine (21), and sarpagine (22), were isolated from the roots of Rauvolla serpentina. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic data analysis and comparison with literature data. Compounds 11, 12 and 15 were for the first time identified from the genus Rauvolfla and 5, 7, 11, 12, 15, 18 and 22 were found from R. sepentina for the first time. Compound 11 showed moderate anticholinesterase activity with IC50 value of 15.58 µM, whereas 6 exhibited strong vasorelaxant activity with the EC50 value of 0.05 µM.

Diarylheptanoids of Curcuma comosa with inhibitory effects on nitric oxide production in macrophage RAW 264.7 cells.

Eight new diarylheptanoids, a 1.2:1 mixture of (3S)- and (3R)-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-7-phenyl-(4E,6E)-4,6-heptadien-3-ol (1a and 1b), a racemic mixture of (3S)- and (3R)-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3-methoxy-7-phenyl-(4E,6E)-4,6-heptadiene (2a and 2b), a ca. 1:1 mixture of (3S)- and (3R)-1-(4-hydroxy-3- methoxyphenyl)-3-methoxy-7-phenyl)-(4E,6E)-4,6-heptadiene (3a and 3b), 3-acetoxy-1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-7-phenylheptan-5-ol (4), (3R)-1-(4,5- dihydroxyphenyl)-7-phenyl-(6E)-6-hepten-3,2'-epoxide (5), and thirteen known diarylheptanoids, 6-12, a 3:1 mixture of 13a and 13b, and 14-17, were isolated from the rhizomes of Curcuma comosa from Sakon Nakhon, northeastern part of Thailand. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their anti- inflammatory activities on the inhibition of lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide production in macrophage RAW 264.7 cells and the diarylheptanoids 1a and 1b mixture and 14 exhibited potent inhibitory activity.