Genkwanin inhibits proinflammatory mediators mainly through the regulation of miR-101/MKP-1/MAPK pathway in LPS-activated macrophages.

Genkwanin is one of the major non-glycosylated flavonoids in many herbs with anti-inflammatory activities. Although its anti-inflammatory activity in vivo has been reported, the potential molecular mechanisms remain obscure. In this study, by pharmacological and genetic approaches, we explore the anti-inflammatory effects of genkwanin in LPS-activated RAW264.7 macrophages. Genkwanin potently decreases the proinflammatory mediators, such as iNOS, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, at the transcriptional and translational levels without cytotoxicity, indicating the excellent anti-inflammatory potency of genkwanin in vitro. Mechanism study shows that genkwanin significantly suppresses the p38- and JNK-mediated AP-1 signaling pathway and increases the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) expression at the posttranscriptional level. We also confirmed that microRNA-101 (miR-101) is a negative regulator of MKP-1 expression. Moreover, regardless of miR-101-deficient cells or miR-101-abundant cells, the suppression effects of genkwanin on supernatant proinflammatory mediators' levels are far less than that in respective negative control cells, suggesting that genkwanin exerts anti-inflammatory effect mainly through reducing miR-101 production. However, genkwanin can't affect the level of phospho-Akt (p-Akt), indicating that the phosphorylation of Akt may be not responsible for the effect of genkwanin on miR-101 production. We conclude that genkwanin exerts its anti-inflammatory effect mainly through the regulation of the miR-101/MKP-1/MAPK pathway.