Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresources and Environment, Co-Innovation Center of Jiangsu Marine Bio-industry Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Marine Pharmaceutical Compound Screening, College of Pharmacy, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China.
Institute of Neuroscience, The First People's Hospital of Lianyungang, Lianyungang 222000, China.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2023 Sep;122:110563. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110563. Epub 2023 Jun 29.
Liensinine is mainly derived from alkaloids extracted and isolated from lotus seeds (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn). It possesses anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant, according to contemporary pharmacological investigations. However, the effects and therapeutic mechanisms of liensinine on acute kidney injury (AKI) models of sepsis are unclear. To gain insight into these mechanisms, we established a sepsis kidney injury model by LPS injection of mice treated with liensinine, and stimulation of HK-2 with LPS in vitro and treated with liensinine and inhibitors of p38 MAPK, JNK MAPK. We first found that liensinine significantly reduced kidney injury in sepsis mice, while suppressing excessive inflammatory responses, restoring renal oxidative stress-related biomarkers, reducing increased apoptosis in TUNEL-positive cells and excessive autophagy, and that this process was accompanied by an increase in JNK/ p38-ATF 2 axis. In vitro experiments further demonstrated that lensinine reduced the expression of KIM-1, NGAL, inhibited pro- and anti-inflammatory secretion disorders, regulated the activation of the JNK/p38-ATF 2 axis, and reduced the accumulation of ROS, as well as the reduction of apoptotic cells detected by flow cytometry, and that this process played the same role as that of p38 MAPK, JNK MAPK inhibitors. We speculate that liensinine and p38 MAPK, JNK MAPK inhibitors may act on the same targets and could be involved in the mechanism of alleviating sepsis kidney injury in part through modulation of the JNK/p38-ATF 2 axis. Our study demonstrates that lensinine is a potential drug and thus provides a potential avenue for the treatment of AKI.
莲心碱主要来源于从莲子(Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn)中提取和分离的生物碱。根据当代药理学研究,它具有抗炎和抗氧化作用。然而,莲心碱对脓毒症急性肾损伤(AKI)模型的作用和治疗机制尚不清楚。为了深入了解这些机制,我们通过 LPS 注射建立了脓毒症肾损伤模型,并用 LPS 刺激 HK-2,并分别用莲心碱和 p38MAPK、JNKMAPK 抑制剂处理。我们首先发现,莲心碱显著减轻了脓毒症小鼠的肾损伤,同时抑制了过度的炎症反应,恢复了与肾氧化应激相关的生物标志物,减少了 TUNEL 阳性细胞中过度凋亡和过度自噬的增加,这一过程伴随着 JNK/p38-ATF2 轴的增加。体外实验进一步表明,莲心碱降低了 KIM-1、NGAL 的表达,抑制了促炎和抗炎分泌紊乱,调节了 JNK/p38-ATF2 轴的激活,减少了 ROS 的积累,以及流式细胞术检测到的凋亡细胞减少,这一过程与 p38MAPK、JNKMAPK 抑制剂发挥相同的作用。我们推测,莲心碱和 p38MAPK、JNKMAPK 抑制剂可能作用于相同的靶点,并可能通过调节 JNK/p38-ATF2 轴部分参与缓解脓毒症肾损伤的机制。我们的研究表明,莲心碱是一种潜在的药物,因此为 AKI 的治疗提供了一个潜在的途径。