• Jingjing Kang, Yushun Zhang, Xiang Cao, Jie Fan, Guilan Li, Qi Wang, Ying Diao, Zhihui Zhao, Lan Luo, and Zhimin Yin.
• Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory for Molecular and Medicine Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
• Int. Immunopharmacol. 2012 Jan 1; 12 (1): 249-56.

AbstractAs a natural alkaloid extracted from Amaryllidaceae, lycorine shows various biological effects on tumor cells. Here we show that lycorine dose-dependently inhibited the LPS-induced up-regulation of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein level in RAW264.7 cells. Besides, it also inhibited NO, PGE(2), TNF-α and IL-6 release from LPS-treated RAW264.7 cells. RT-PCR experiments showed that lycorine suppressed LPS-induced iNOS but not COX-2 gene expression. Moreover, lycorine decreased LPS-induced mortality in mice. Mechanistically, LPS-induced activation of P38 and STATs pathways was suppressed significantly by lycorine. In addition, lycorine did not interfere with the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, JNK1/2 and NF-κB pathways. In conclusion, lycorine inhibits LPS-induced production of pro-inflammatory mediators and increases the survival rate of mice after LPS challenge, suggesting that lycorine could play an anti-inflammatory role in response to LPS.Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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