Lin Wan-Teng, He Yen-Hua, Lo Yun-Hsin, Chiang Yu-Ting, Wang Sheng-Yang, Bezirganoglu Ismail, Kumar K J Senthil
Department of Hospitality Management, College of Agriculture and Health, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.
Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
Plants (Basel). 2023 Mar 9;12(6):1241. doi: 10.3390/plants12061241.
Cassini ( in Chinese) is a perennial herb native to Taiwan. It was used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective agent. Recent studies have shown that extracts of possess various bioactivities, including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulation, and anti-cancer properties. However, the pharmacological activities of essential oils have not been studied. In this study, we extracted essential oil from air-dried plants, then investigated the anti-inflammatory potential of essential oil (GTEO) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in murine macrophage cells (RAW 264.7) in vitro. Treatment with GTEO (25, 50, and 100 μg/mL) significantly as well as dose-dependently inhibited LPS-induced pro-inflammatory molecules, such as nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E (PGE) production, without causing cytotoxicity. Q-PCR and immunoblotting analysis revealed that the inhibition of NO and PGE was caused by downregulation of their corresponding mediator genes, inducible nitric oxide synthase (), and cyclooxygenase-2 (), respectively. Immunofluorescence and luciferase reporter assays revealed that the inhibition of and genes by GTEO was associated with the suppression of nuclear export and transcriptional activation of the redox-sensitive transcription factor, nuclear factor -κB (NF-κB). In addition, GTEO treatment significantly inhibited phosphorylation and proteosomal degradation of the inhibitor of NF-κB (I-κBα), an endogenous repressor of NF-κB. Moreover, treatment with GTEO significantly blocked the LPS-mediated activation of inhibitory κB kinase α (IKKα), an upstream kinase of the I-κBα. Furthermore, -cymene, β-myrcene, β-cedrene, -β-ocimene, α-pinene, and -limonene were represented as major components of GTEO. We found that treatment with -cymene, α-pinene, and -limonene were significantly inhibiting LPS-induced NO production in RAW 264.7 cells. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that GTEO inhibits inflammation through the downregulation of NF-κB-mediated inflammatory genes and pro-inflammatory molecules in macrophage cells.
水菊（中文名称）是一种原产于台湾的多年生草本植物。它在传统中药中被用作退烧药、抗炎药和保肝药。最近的研究表明，水菊提取物具有多种生物活性，包括抗氧化、抗炎、免疫调节和抗癌特性。然而，水菊精油的药理活性尚未得到研究。在本研究中，我们从风干的水菊植物中提取了精油，然后在体外研究了水菊精油（GTEO）对脂多糖（LPS）诱导的小鼠巨噬细胞（RAW 264.7）炎症的抗炎潜力。用GTEO（25、50和100μg/mL）处理显著且剂量依赖性地抑制了LPS诱导的促炎分子，如一氧化氮（NO）和前列腺素E（PGE）的产生，且未引起细胞毒性。Q-PCR和免疫印迹分析表明，对NO和PGE的抑制分别是由其相应的介导基因，即诱导型一氧化氮合酶（）和环氧化酶-2（）的下调引起的。免疫荧光和荧光素酶报告基因分析表明，GTEO对和基因的抑制与氧化还原敏感转录因子核因子-κB（NF-κB）的核输出抑制和转录激活抑制有关。此外，GTEO处理显著抑制了NF-κB的内源性抑制剂NF-κB抑制蛋白（I-κBα）的磷酸化和蛋白酶体降解。此外，用GTEO处理显著阻断了LPS介导的I-κBα上游激酶抑制性κB激酶α（IKKα）的激活。此外，对伞花烃、β-月桂烯、β-雪松烯、β-罗勒烯、α-蒎烯和柠檬烯是GTEO的主要成分。我们发现，用对伞花烃、α-蒎烯和柠檬烯处理可显著抑制RAW 264.7细胞中LPS诱导的NO产生。综上所述，这些结果强烈表明，GTEO通过下调巨噬细胞中NF-κB介导的炎症基因和促炎分子来抑制炎症。
