A new steroidal saponin, furotrilliumoside from Trillium tschonoskii inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in Raw264.7 cells by targeting PI3K/Akt, MARK and Nrf2/HO-1 pathways.

A new steroidal saponin, furotrilliumoside (FT) was isolated from the roots and rhizomes of Trillium tschonoskii Maxim. Its structure was elucidated on the basis of 1D- and 2D-NMR spectroscopic data as well as HR-ESI-MS analysis. FT showed superior activity of inhibiting NO production of RAW264.7 cells induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the preliminary biological screening. In order to develop novel therapeutic drug for acute and chronic inflammatory disorders, the anti-inflammatory activity and underlying mechanism of FT were investigated in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. The results showed that FT could reduce LPS-induced expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and then resulted in the decrement of NO production. More meaningful, FT could down-regulate the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and decrease the expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), in both gene and protein levels. In mechanism study, FT blocked the LPS-induced upregulation of phosphorylated phosphoinositide-3-kinase and Akt (PI3K/Akt). Furthermore, FT inhibited the translocation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) through the prevention of inhibitory factor kappa B alpha (IκBα) phosphorylation and degradation and also suppressed the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signaling pathway in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. In addition, FT upregulated heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression via nuclear translocation of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Taken together, FT might act as a natural agent to treat some inflammatory diseases by targeting PI3K/Akt, MARK and Nrf2/HO-1 pathways.