Description: |
Pinoresinol has antiinflammatory, hepatoprotective, and fungicidal activities, it can protect pial microcirculation from I-reperfusion injury, to increase nitric oxide release and to reduce oxidative stress preserving pial blood flow distribution; it may exert pharmacologically interesting effects via modulation of the insulin-like signalling pathway in C. elegans. Pinoresinol causes an upregulation of the CDK inhibitor p21(WAF1/Cip1) both at mRNA and protein levels, inhibits NF-kappaB and activating protein 1 (AP-1). |
In vitro: |
J Nutr. 2012 Oct;142(10):1798-805. | Among plant lignans, pinoresinol has the strongest antiinflammatory properties in human intestinal Caco-2 cells.[Pubmed: 22955517] | Dietary lignans show some promising health benefits, but little is known about their fate and activities in the small intestine. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate whether plant lignans are taken up by intestinal cells and modulate the intestinal inflammatory response using the Caco-2 cell model.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
Six lignan standards [secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), secoisolariciresinol (SECO), pinoresinol (PINO), lariciresinol, matairesinol (MAT), and hydroxymatairesinol] and their colonic metabolites [enterolactone (ENL) and enterodiol] were studied. First, differentiated cells were exposed to SDG, SECO, PINO, or ENL at increasing concentrations for 4 h, and their cellular contents (before and after deconjugation) were determined by HPLC. Second, in IL-1β-stimulated confluent and/or differentiated cells, lignan effects were tested on different soluble proinflammatory mediators quantified by enzyme immunoassays and on the NF-κB activation pathway by using cells transiently transfected. SECO, PINO, and ENL, but not SDG, were taken up and partly conjugated by cells, which is a saturable conjugation process. PINO was the most efficiently conjugated (75% of total in cells). In inflamed cells, PINO significantly reduced IL-6 by 65% and 30% in confluent and differentiated cells, respectively, and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2-derived prostaglandin E(2) by 62% in confluent cells. In contrast, MAT increased significantly COX-2-derived prostaglandin E(2) in confluent cells. Moreover, PINO dose-dependently decreased IL-6 and macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 secretions and NF-κB activity.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings suggest that plant lignans can be absorbed and metabolized in the small intestine and, among the plant lignans tested, PINO exhibited the strongest antiinflammatory properties by acting on the NF-κB signaling pathway, possibly in relation to its furofuran structure and/or its intestinal metabolism. | Molecules. 2010 May 14;15(5):3507-16. | Antifungal effect of (+)-pinoresinol isolated from Sambucus williamsii.[Pubmed: 20657496 ] | In this study, we investigated the antifungal activity and mechanism of action of (+)-pinoresinol, a biphenolic compound isolated from the herb Sambucus williamsii,used in traditional medicine.
(+)-Pinoresinol displays potent antifungal properties without hemolytic effects on human erythrocytes. METHODS AND RESULTS: To understand the antifungal mechanism of (+)-pinoresinol, we conducted fluorescence experiments on the human pathogen Candida albicans. Fluorescence analysis using 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) indicated that the (+)-pinoresinol caused damage to the fungal plasma membrane. This result was confirmed by using rhodamine-labeled giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV) experiments.
CONCLUSIONS:
Therefore, the present study indicates that (+)-pinoresinol possesses fungicidal activities and therapeutic potential as an antifungal agent for the treatment of fungal infectious diseases in humans. | Sci Rep . 2019 Sep 18;9(1):13505. | Accelerated degradation of cFLIP L and sensitization of the TRAIL DISC-mediated apoptotic cascade by pinoresinol, a lignan isolated from Rubia philippinensis[Pubmed: 31534206] | Abstract
Plant-derived lignans have numerous biological effects including anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activities. Screening of purified constituents of Rubia philippinensis from human glioblastoma cells resistant to TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has suggested that the lignan pinoresinol was a highly active TRAIL sensitizer. Here we show that treatment with nontoxic doses of pinoresinol in combination with TRAIL induced rapid apoptosis and caspase activation in many types of glioblastoma cells, but not in normal astrocytes. Analyses of apoptotic signaling events revealed that pinoresinol enhanced the formation of TRAIL-mediated death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) and complete processing of procaspase-8 within the DISC in glioblastoma cells, in which caspase-8 was inactivated. Mechanistically, pinoresinol downregulated the expression of cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (cFLIPL) and survivin through proteasome-mediated degradation, without affecting death receptors or downstream intracellular apoptosis-related proteins. Furthermore, the sensitization of TRAIL-mediated apoptosis by pinoresinol strictly depended on the expression level of cFLIPL, which was regulated through de novo protein synthesis, rather than by NF-κB or p53 signaling. Taken together, our results indicate that pinoresinol facilitates DISC-mediated caspase-8 activation by targeting cFLIPL in an early event in apoptotic signaling, which provides a potential therapeutic module for TRAIL-based chemotherapy. |
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In vivo: |
Phytother Res. 2015 Jun;29(6):894-901. | The Lignan Pinoresinol Induces Nuclear Translocation of DAF-16 in Caenorhabditis elegans but has No Effect on Life Span.[Pubmed: 25826281] | The lignan pinoresinol is a constituent of flaxseed, sesame seeds and olive oil. Because of different molecular effects reported for this compound, e.g. antioxidative activity, pinoresinol is suggested to cause positive effects on humans.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
Because experimental data are limited, we have analysed the effects of the lignan on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: in spite of a strong antioxidative capacity detected in an in vitro assay, no antioxidative effects were detectable in vivo. In analogy to this result, no modulation of the sensitivity against thermal stress was detectable. However, incubation with pinoresinol caused an enhanced nuclear accumulation of the transcription factor DAF-16 (insulin/IGF-like signalling pathway). Using a strain with an enhanced oxidative stress level (mev-1 mutant), we clearly see an increase in stress resistance caused by this lignan, but no change in reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of pinoresinol on the life span of the nematode, but no modulation was found, neither in wild-type nor in mev-1 mutant nematodes.
CONCLUSIONS:
These results suggest that pinoresinol may exert pharmacologically interesting effects via modulation of the insulin-like signalling pathway in C. elegans as well as in other species like mammals due to the evolutionary conservation of this signalling pathway. |
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