Cynanchun paniculatum offers the pharmacologist an interesting range of compounds. These include two in particular: cynanversicoside A and cynanversicoside C. It’s possible they have activity as anti-inflammatories and antivirals and could well be a new set of compounds set to work against flu for example if not other diseases.
Influenza is a major respiratory disease in humans and is highly debilitating if not a killer in people over 65. There are only a few antiviral drugs and vaccines available to the medic to prevent if not treat the disease. Drug combinations might help and so studies to find a variety of bioactives which have not been properly investigated are now being sought.
A recent study looked at the reduction in influenza A virus in pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells of mice (MPMEC) (Wei et al., 2017). Ethanolic extracts of C. paniculatum were examined in a cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition assay. The active compounds were able to inhibit the influenza A/FM1/1/47 (H1N1) virus. The cytokine assay showed that cynanversicoside A and cynanversicoside C could suppress the production of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in Mice Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells (MPMEC) after they had been infected with the influenza virus.
A number of other mechanisms associated with inflammation were also controlled to a certain extent, especially in the regulation of the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways.
NF-κB (nuclear factor κB) is a pleiotropic transcription factor involved in different signaling pathways, ranging from inflammation, oncogenesis and apoptosis.
The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are a group of related kinases which modulate the activity of intracellular proteins via phosphorylation, and can lead to changes in gene expression and protein synthesis.
The extracts could also kill certain fish parasites such as Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ji-Hong et al., 2017). In this case, two compounds, Cynatratoside-A and Cynanversicoside C were found to be effective against the parasites. The potential here is the possibility of using it in fish feeds to treat a very damaging fish parasite as well as the potential against other parasites, fish or human.
The root extract also includes some C21 steroidal aglycones, neocynapanogenin G and neocynapanogenin H which appear to be novel to science and remain to be assessed for their activities (Zhao et al., 2016). The roots also yield cynapanoside A, neocynapanogenin F 3-O-β-D-oleandropyranoside, glaucogenin F andglaucogenin F 3-O-β-D-oleandropyranoside (Zhao et al., 2016b).
References
Ji-Hong, W., Yan-Li, W., Yu-Hua, L., Ji-Yuan, Z., & Ze-Hong, L. I. (2017). Activity of two extracts of Cynanchum paniculatum against Ichthyophthirius multifiliis theronts and tomonts. Parasitology, 144(2), pp. 179-185.
Wei, P., Zhang, T., Hong, D., Chen, Q., Mu, X., & Hu, G. (2017). Anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities of cynanversicoside A and cynanversicoside C isolated from Cynanchun paniculatum in influenza A virus-infected Mice Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells. Phytomedicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2017.09.009
Zhao, J. W., Chen, F. Y., Gao, L. J., Xu, S. F., Ye, Y. P., & Li, X. Y. (2016a). Two New Steroidal Aglycones from Roots of Cynanchun paniculatum. Natural Product Communications, 11(6), pp. 747-748. PMID: 27534107
Zhao, D., Wang, H.F., Chen, G., Li, Y.P., Hua, H.M., Pei, Y.H. (2016b) Two new 13,14:14,15-disecopregnane-type compounds from the roots of Cynanchum paniculatum. J. Asian Nat. Prod. Res. 18(4) pp. 339-343 PMID: 26465069 doi: 10.1080/10286020.2015.1080246
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