Chemical Constituents and an Antineuroinflammatory Lignan, Savinin from the Roots of Acanthopanax henryi

Li, Xiao-Jun; Kim, Kwan-Woo; Oh, Hyuncheol; Liu, Xiang-Qian; Kim, Youn-Chul

Neuroinflammatory responses are mainly mediated by microglial activation, and they are implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's diseases (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) [1] . Microglial cells are the primary resident immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS) and are associated with defensive mechanisms to maintain homeostasis against brain injury [2] . In steady state, microglia exert protective responses by regulating innate and adaptive immune responses. However, activated microglia produce excess immune reactions which are detrimental to brain tissue and can produce various proinflammatory mediators such as tumor necrosis factor-(TNF-) , interleukins (ILs), nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE 2 ), and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Released and accumulated, these proinflammatory mediators facilitate the development of neurodegenerative diseases [3, 4] . Therefore, it is important to suppress the secretion of proinflammatory mediators from activated microglial cells to prevent the neuroinflammation-related development of neurodegenerative diseases.