Inhibition of LPS-stimulated NO production in mouse macrophage-like cells by azulenequinones.

Azulenequinone derivatives have been reported to display a broad spectrum of biological activities, but study at the cellular level has been limited. The effect of twenty-seven azulenequinone derivatives on nitric oxide (NO) production by mouse macrophage-like cells Raw 264.7 was investigated in this study. All of these compounds failed to stimulate the Raw 264.7 cells to produce detectable amounts of NO, but did inhibit NO production by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated Raw 264. 7 cells to varying extents. Compounds [7, 8, 9, 13, 16, 25, 27], which showed lesser cytotoxic activity (CC50 = 425, 381, 482, 179, 119, 235, 225 microM, respectively), inhibited NO production to the greatest extent [selectivity index (SI) = 15.4, 26.2, 3.9, 21.6, 3.1, 6.0, 8.4, respectively]. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses demonstrated that the most active derivatives, 3-morpholino-1, 5-azulenequinone [8] and 3,7-dibromo-1, 5-azulenequinone [13], significantly reduced both the intracellular concentration of iNOS protein and the expression of iNOS mRNA. ESR spectroscopy showed that compounds [8, 13] weakly scavenged NO produced by NOC-7, possibly via their general reducing activity. These data suggest that the inhibitory effect of NO production by compounds [8, 13] might be generated mostly via the inhibition of iNOS expression, rather than the radical-mediated mechanism.