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Anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of usnic acid

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Abstract

The anti-inflammatory effect and mechanism of Usnic acid (UA) were explored on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cell line. The effects of UA on pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-alfa (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were studied by sandwich ELISA, real-time PCR and western blot analyses. Similarly, the effect of UA on anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) and anti-inflammatory mediator heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) were also studied following the same methods. Furthermore, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) was assayed by immunocytochemistry. The results showed that UA has anti-inflammatory effect by down-regulatinng iNOS, COX-2, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α, COX-2 gene expression through the suppression of NF-κB activation and increasing anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and anti-inflammatory mediator HO-1 production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, Tongji Medical Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Zhijun Huang  (黄志军) & Jinlan Ruan  (阮金兰)

  2. School of Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Zhijun Huang  (黄志军)

  3. School of Pharmacy, Hubei University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China

    Guohua Zheng & Junyan Tao

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  1. Zhijun Huang  (黄志军)
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  2. Guohua Zheng
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  3. Junyan Tao
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  4. Jinlan Ruan  (阮金兰)
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Correspondence to Jinlan Ruan  (阮金兰).

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Huang, Z., Zheng, G., Tao, J. et al. Anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of usnic acid. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol.-Mat. Sci. Edit. 26, 955–959 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-011-0344-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-011-0344-8

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