Chaetoglobosin Fex from the marine-derived endophytic fungus inhibits induction of inflammatory mediators via Toll-like receptor 4 signaling in macrophages.

Chaetoglobosin Fex (Cha Fex), a cytochalasan-based alkaloid, was isolated from marine-derived endophytic fungus Chaetomium globosum QEN-14. The knowledge of its biological function is still limited. We investigated the effects and mechanism of Cha Fex on inflammatory mediators via Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling in macrophages. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), TLR4 ligand, was therefore designed to active TLR4 signaling pathway, and Cha Fex significantly inhibited the LPS-induced production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) in peritoneal macrophages and murine macrophage cell line RAW264.7. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) detection also found that Cha Fex down-regulated the mRNA expressions of these pro-inflammtory cytokines. Moreover, Cha Fex significantly attenuated the LPS-stimulated degradation of inhibitory kappa B-alpha and the subsequent translocation of the p65 subunit of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) to the nucleus. Cha Fex also reduced the phosphorylations of extracellular-signal-related kinase (ERK1/2), p38, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK1/2). Furthermore, we confirmed that Cha Fex didn't affect LPS binding to the RAW264.7 cells and human monocytes, while Cha Fex was able to inhibit the increase of membrane-associated CD14 (mCD14) expression both on RAW cells and human monocytes induced by LPS to a certain degree. These results suggest that the anti-inflammatory property of Cha Fex may be attributed to NF-κB inhibition as well as the negative regulation of ERK1/2, p38, and JNK1/2 phosphorylations. On the other hand, these inhibitory effects may also be due to the blocking of mCD14 expression.