Most clinical drugs used to treat inflammation have serious gastrointestinal, renal, and cardiovascular side effects during long-term treatment. The development of new anti-inflammatory agents from natural products and their derivatives is a powerful approach to overcome these adverse effects. Batatasin III, a bibenzyl natural product, has been found to have anti-inflammatory activity. Compared with other anti-inflammatory agents, batatasin III has a simple and unique structure. Therefore, batatasin III and its analogs might have the potential to treat inflammation with only mild adverse effects as a new type of anti-inflammatory agent. Herein, we synthesized 26 batatasin III analogs and evaluated the anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. Analog 21 significantly inhibited (p < 0.01) nitric oxide production with an IC50 value of 12.95 μM. Western blot analysis further revealed that 21 reduced iNOS, phosphorylated p65, and β-catenin expression in a concentration-dependent manner. These results indicated that 21 could be a potential lead compound for developing a drug candidate for ulcerative colitis. Molecular docking analysis showed that p65 might be a potential target of 21 for the treatment of inflammatory disease. In addition, we analyzed the structure-activity relationship of the analogs, which provides a basis for future structural modifications.
Keywords: Batatasin III; INOS; Importin α3; Inflammation; P65; β-catenin.
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