Costunolide alleviates atherosclerosis in high-fat diet-fed ApoE mice through covalently binding to IKKβ and inhibiting NF-κB-mediated inflammation.

Costunolide (CTD) is a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from costus root and exhibits various biological activities including anti-inflammation. Since atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, we herein investigated the anti-atherosclerotic effects of CTD and the underlying mechanism. Atherosclerosis was induced in ApoE mice by feeding them with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks, followed by administration of CTD (10, 20 mg ·kg·d, i.