Potential Anti-inflammatory Effects of the Fruits of Paulownia tomentosa

J Nat Prod. 2017 Oct 27;80(10):2659-2665. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b00325. Epub 2017 Oct 2.

Abstract

As part of an ongoing search for new natural products from medicinal plants to treat respiratory disease, six new compounds, a dihydroflavonol (1) and five C-geranylated flavanones (3, 6, 8, 13, and 14), and 13 known compounds were isolated from mature fruits of Paulownia tomentosa. The structures of the new compounds were determined via interpretation of their spectroscopic data (1D and 2D NMR, UV, IR, ECD, and MS). In biological activity assays with human alveolar basal epithelial cells, the expression of TNF-α-induced proinflammatory cytokines (IL-8 and IL-6) was reduced significantly by the EtOAc fraction of a P. tomentosa extract as well as by the new compounds isolated from this fraction. Furthermore, the majority of the isolates (1-19 except 5-7) were found to inhibit human neutrophil elastase (HNE) activity, with IC50 values ranging from 2.4 ± 1.0 to 74.7 ± 8.5 μM. In kinetic enzymatic assays with the HNE substrate MeOSuc-AAPV-pNA, compound 17 exhibited the highest inhibitory activity (Ki = 3.2 μM) via noncompetitive inhibition. These findings suggest that the flavanone constituents of P. tomentosa fruits may be valuable for the development of new drug candidates to treat airway inflammation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / chemistry
  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / isolation & purification*
  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / pharmacology*
  • Flavanones / chemistry
  • Flavanones / isolation & purification*
  • Flavanones / pharmacology*
  • Fruit / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Interleukin-6 / analysis
  • Interleukin-8 / analysis
  • Magnoliopsida / chemistry*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory / chemistry
  • Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory / isolation & purification*
  • Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory / pharmacology*
  • Republic of Korea
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / analysis
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / pharmacology

Substances

  • Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal
  • Flavanones
  • Interleukin-6
  • Interleukin-8
  • Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
  • flavanone