After the Women's Health Initiative found that the risks of hormone therapy outweighed the benefits, a need for alternative drugs to treat menopausal symptoms has emerged. We explored the possibility that botanical agents used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for menopausal symptoms contain ERbeta-selective estrogens. We previously reported that an extract containing 22 herbs, MF101 has ERbeta-selective properties. In this study we isolated liquiritigenin, the most active estrogenic compound from the root of Glycyrrhizae uralensis Fisch, which is one of the plants found in MF101. Liquiritigenin activated multiple ER regulatory elements and native target genes with ERbeta but not ERalpha. The ERbeta-selectivity of liquiritigenin was due to the selective recruitment of the coactivator steroid receptor coactivator-2 to target genes. In a mouse xenograph model, liquiritigenin did not stimulate uterine size or tumorigenesis of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Our results demonstrate that some plants contain highly selective estrogens for ERbeta.

A MeOH extract of Garcinia xanthochymus fruits was subjected to activity-guided fractionation, yielding two new benzophenones, guttiferone H (1) and gambogenone (2). Compound 1 contains a seven-membered ring attached to the bicyclo[3.3.1]nonane system at positions 7 and 8 and displayed cytotoxicity in the SW-480 colon cancer cell line (IC(50) = 12 microM). Compound 2 has a novel benzophenone bicyclo[3.3.2]decane system and displayed cytotoxicity in the SW-480 colon cancer cell line (IC(50) = 188 microM). Both 1 and 2 induced apoptosis in SW-480 colon cancer cells and displayed antioxidant activity in the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay (IC(50) = 64 and 38.7 microM, respectively). The structures of 1 and 2 were established by 1D and 2D NMR data analysis. Eleven known compounds, aristophenone A, alloathyriol, amentoflavone, 3,8' '-biapigenin, cycloxanthochymol, (+/-)-fukugetin, (+/-)-fukugiside, guttiferone E, isoxanthochymol, (+/-)-volkensiflavone, and xanthochymol, were also obtained. The 11 known compounds were also tested against SW-480 colon cancer cells and in the DPPH assay.

No abstract

Activity-guided fractionation of Theobroma grandiflorum ("cupuaçu") seeds resulted in the identification of two new sulfated flavonoid glycosides, theograndins I (1) and II (2). In addition, nine known flavonoid antioxidants, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, isoscutellarein 8-O-beta-d-glucuronide, hypolaetin 8-O-beta-d-glucuronide, quercetin 3-O-beta-d-glucuronide, quercetin 3-O-beta-d-glucuronide 6' '-methyl ester, quercetin, kaempferol, and isoscutellarein 8-O-beta-d-glucuronide 6' '-methyl ester, were identified. Theograndin II (2) displayed antioxidant activity (IC(50) = 120.2 microM) in the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free-radical assay, as well as weak cytotoxicity in the HCT-116 and SW-480 human colon cancer cell lines with IC(50) values of 143 and 125 microM, respectively. While 1 was less active as an antioxidant than 2, the known compounds were more potent in the DPPH assay (IC(50) range 39.7-89.7 microM).

Estrogens produce biological effects by interacting with two estrogen receptors, ERα and ERβ. Drugs that selectively target ERα or ERβ might be safer for conditions that have been traditionally treated with non-selective estrogens. Several synthetic and natural ERβ-selective compounds have been identified. One class of ERβ-selective agonists is represented by ERB-041 (WAY-202041) which binds to ERβ much greater than ERα. A second class of ERβ-selective agonists derived from plants include MF101, nyasol and liquiritigenin that bind similarly to both ERs, but only activate transcription with ERβ. Diarylpropionitrile represents a third class of ERβ-selective compounds because its selectivity is due to a combination of greater binding to ERβ and transcriptional activity. However, it is unclear if these three classes of ERβ-selective compounds produce similar biological activities. The goals of these studies were to determine the relative ERβ selectivity and pattern of gene expression of these three classes of ERβ-selective compounds compared to estradiol (E2), which is a non-selective ER agonist. U2OS cells stably transfected with ERα or ERβ were treated with E2 or the ERβ-selective compounds for 6 h. Microarray data demonstrated that ERB-041, MF101 and liquiritigenin were the most ERβ-selective agonists compared to estradiol, followed by nyasol and then diarylpropionitrile. FRET analysis showed that all compounds induced a similar conformation of ERβ, which is consistent with the finding that most genes regulated by the ERβ-selective compounds were similar to each other and E2. However, there were some classes of genes differentially regulated by the ERβ agonists and E2. Two ERβ-selective compounds, MF101 and liquiritigenin had cell type-specific effects as they regulated different genes in HeLa, Caco-2 and Ishikawa cell lines expressing ERβ. Our gene profiling studies demonstrate that while most of the genes were commonly regulated by ERβ-selective agonists and E2, there were some genes regulated that were distinct from each other and E2, suggesting that different ERβ-selective agonists might produce distinct biological and clinical effects.

Polyisoprenylated benzophenones derived from Garcinia xanthochymus have cytotoxic activity in vitro and antitumor activity in rodent models, but the mechanism is unknown. The purpose of our study was to examine in parallel molecular pathways that are targeted by 3 Garcinia-derived benzophenones-xanthochymol (X), guttiferone E (GE) and guttiferone H (GH), in 3 human colon cancer cell lines, HCT116, HT29 and SW480. The IC50 concentrations were determined and the cells were then treated with X, GE or GH at their respective IC50 or IC50x2 concentrations. Effects on the cell cycle, mitochondrial membrane potential and apoptosis were assessed by flow cytometry and caspase activation. Changes in gene expression were assessed with Illumina 24 K gene arrays. We found that X, GE and GH induced loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and G1 arrest at their IC50 concentrations and induced caspase activation at IC50 3 2 concentrations. An analysis of the changes in gene expression revealed that with all 3 compounds and all 3 cell lines there was a marked increase in expression of several genes, including XBP1, ATF4 and DDIT3/CHOP, which are components of the endoplasmic reticulum stress response. The DDIT4/REDD1 gene, an inhibitor of the mTOR survival pathway, was also up-regulated. Therefore, X, GE and GH appear to inhibit the growth of human colon cancer cells, at least in part, by activating the endoplasmic reticulum stress response and inhibiting the mTOR cell survival pathway. These combined effects may contribute to the anticancer activity of these novel compounds.

Antioxidant-guided fractionation of Mammea americana L. seeds resulted in the identification of three new isoprenylated coumarins, mammea B/BA hydroxycyclo F (1), mammea E/BC (2), and mammea E/BD (3). In addition, twelve known isoprenylated coumarins, mammea A/AA (4), mammea A/AA cyclo D (5), mammea A/AA cyclo F (6), mammea A/AC cyclo D (7), mammea A/AD cyclo D (8), mammea B/BA (9), mammea B/BA cyclo F (10), mammea B/BB (11), mammea B/BC (12), mammea B/BD (13), mammea E/BA (14), and mammea E/BB (15), as well as two known flavanols, (+)-catechin (16) and (-)-epicatechin (17) were identified. The fifteen isoprenylated coumarins were screened for their cytotoxicity in the SW-480, HT-29, and HCT-116 human colon cancer cell lines and antioxidant capacities in the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free-radical assay. Compounds 1 - 15 exhibited significant cytotoxic activities in the SW-480, HT-29, and HCT-116 human colon cancer cell lines (IC50 ranges 13.9 - 88.1, 11.2 - 85.3, and 10.7 - 76.7 microM, in the three cell lines, respectively) at concentrations comparable to 5-fluorouracil (IC50 = 53.0, 46.1, and 45.1 microM), a drug frequently used for human colon cancer treatment. Compounds 2 - 4, 9, and 11 - 15 displayed high antioxidant activity in the DPPH assay (IC50 range 86 - 135 microM), compounds 1, 5 - 8, and 10, however, had no antioxidant activity (IC50 > 200 microg/mL) in the DPPH assay. The results of these assays were used to study the structure-activity relationships for this class of compounds. In the SW-480 cell line, the three new coumarins, 1 - 3, also exhibited dose-dependent increases in sub-diploid cells by flow cytometry, indicating that they induce apoptosis.

No abstract