Discovery of a New Anti-Inflammatory Agent from Anemoside B4 Derivatives and Its Therapeutic Effect on Colitis by Targeting Pyruvate Carboxylase

  • J Med Chem. 2024 May 9;67(9):7385-7405. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00222.
Lijuan Lv  1 ,  Qiurong Li  1 ,  Kexin Wang  1 ,  Jianping Zhao  2 ,  Kejun Deng  3 ,  Ran Zhang  1 ,  Zhong Chen  1 ,  Ikhlas A Khan  2 ,  Chunshan Gui  1 ,  Suxiang Feng  4 ,  Shilin Yang  1 ,  Yanli Liu  1 ,  Qiongming Xu  1
Affiliations
  • 1. College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
  • 2. National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677, United States.
  • 3. School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Informational Biology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China.
  • 4. Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan 450018, China.
PMID: 38687956 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00222
Abstract

Anemoside B4 (AB4), a triterpenoidal saponin from Pulsatilla chinensis, shows significant anti-inflammatory activity, and may be used for treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Nevertheless, its application is limited due to its high molecular weight and pronounced water solubility. To discover new effective agents for treating IBD, we synthesized 28 AB4 derivatives and evaluated their cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities in vitro. Among them, A3-6 exhibited significantly superior anti-inflammatory activity compared to AB4. It showed a significant improvement in the symptoms of DSS-induced colitis in mice, with a notably lower oral effective dose compared to AB4. Furthermore, we discovered that A3-6 bound with pyruvate carboxylase (PC), then inhibited PC activity, reprogramming macrophage function, and alleviated colitis. These findings indicate that A3-6 is a promising therapeutic candidate for colitis, and PC may be a potential new target for treating colitis.

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