St John's Wort Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about St John's Wort, including details on depression, anxiety, side-effects, dosage, benefits.

Garcinone B reduces prostaglandin E2 release and NF-kappaB-mediated transcription in C6 rat glioma cells.

Yamakuni T, Aoki K, Nakatani K, Kondo N, Oku H, Ishiguro K, Ohizumi Y

Department of Pharmaceutical Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.

In the course of our survey of natural compounds inhibiting prostaglandin E2 release and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced transcriptional stimulation via NF-kappaB, a central regulator of inflammatory genes, from natural resources, we found garcinone B, a xanthone from callus tissue culture of Hypericum patulum, as a compound with such pharmacological activities, that is a derivative of gamma-mangostin which potently inhibits COX-1 and COX-2 activities to reduce PGE2 release from C6 rat glioma cells, and inhibits IKK activity to prevent NF-kappaB-dependent COX-2 gene transcription. Garcinone B, to a lesser extent, reduced A23187-induced increase in prostaglandin E2 release than gamma-mangostin and its structurally related compound, patulone, in C6 cells. This compound also prevented LPS-induced stimulation of NF-kappaB-dependent transcription. These results suggest that garcinone B becomes a unique pharmacological tool to investigate intracellular signaling pathways involved in inflammation.

Published 30 January 2006 in Neurosci Lett, 394(3): 206-10.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 St John's Wort Research Today. All Rights Reserved.