Gout is a common disease with a worldwide distribution and is mainly caused by deposition of monosodium urate crystals in joints and other tissues as a result of extracellular urate supersaturation.1) This diseases has been associated with hyperuricemia which results from the overproduction and/or underexcretion of uric acid and is greatly influenced by a high dietary intake of nucleic acids. [1][2][3] In the purine metabolism, xanthine and hypoxanthine are oxidized into uric acid by the activity of xanthine oxidase (XO).4) The compounds with ability to enhance the urinary excretion of uric acid or to inhibit uric acid biosynthesis have been generally employed for the treatment of gout.5) Allopurinol, a XO inhibitor which is used in clinically in the treatment of gout, but this drug suffers from many side effects such as hepatitis, nephropathy, and allergic reactions.
6)Chrysanthemum sinense SABINE (Asteraceae) is a medicinal plant which has been used in Vietnamese traditional medicine for the treatment of fever, rheumatism, inflammation, headache, and eyesight disorder. 7) In a previous study, we reported that the methanolic extract of the flowers of this plant and its constituents showed potent inhibitory activity against XO in vitro. 8,9) The results suggested that flavonoids and caffeoylquinic acid derivatives may play an important role in the XO inhibitory activity of this plant. Therefore, in this study we investigated the in vivo hypouricemic effect of acacetin (1) and 4,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid methyl ester (2) (Fig. 1), a flavonoid and a caffeoylquinic acid derivative, respectively, included in the flowers of C. sinense, using a rat model of hyperuricemia.
MATERIALS AND METHODSChemicals 4,5-O-Dicaffeoylquinic acid methyl ester was isolated from the flowers of C. sinense, and its purity was confirmed by TLC and 1 H-NMR spectral observation as reported previously.10) Acacetin, allopurinol, and uric acid were obtained from Wako Pure Chemicals Industry (Osaka, Japan), and potassium oxonic acid was from Acros Organics (Geel, Belgium). Animals Male Sprague-Dawley rats (6 weeks old, nϭ8) obtained from Sankyo Labo Sevice (Tokyo, Japan) were maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle in a temperature-and humidity-controlled room for 1 week prior to the experiment. The animals were fed with a laboratory pellet chow (CE-2; CLEA Japan Inc., Tokyo, Japan) and water ad libitum during the experiment. This study was conducted in accordance with the standards established by the Guide for the care and use of Laboratory Animals of Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University.Hypouricemic Effect in Potassium Oxonate-Treated Rats An animal model of hyperuricemia induced by the uricase inhibitor potassium oxonate has been used to study in vivo anti-hyperuricemia effects of drugs. 5,6) Briefly, rats were treated with the uricase inhibitor potassium oxonate (PO) (250 mg/kg, i.p.) 1 h before oral (p.o) or intraperitoneal (i.p) administration of test compounds. Blood was taken by cutting the tail tip 2 h after the test drug administ...