Abstract
Rhynchosia volubilis, a small black bean, has been used as a traditional remedy to treat diseases and maintain health in East Asia, but its cellular effects and molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ethanol extract from Rhynchosia volubilis (EERV) on cell survival and to elucidate the biochemical signaling pathways. Our results showed that EERV stimulated the cyclic AMP (cAMP) signal revealed by a fluorescent protein (FP)-based intensiometric sensor. Using a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based sensor, we further revealed that EERV could activate PKA and ERK signals, which are downstream effectors of cAMP. In addition, we reported that EERV could induce the phosphorylation of CREB, a key signal for cell survival. Thus, our results suggested that EERV protects against apoptosis by activating the cell survival pathway through the cAMP-PKA/ERK-CREB pathway.
Highlights
CAMP-protein kinase A (PKA)/ERK-cyclic AMP (cAMP)-responsive element-binding protein (CREB) Pathway.Natural products have long been of interest as treatments for various diseases because of their low cost, high bioavailability, and low cytotoxicity compared to synthetic chemicals [1]
We performed a WST-8 assay to investigate cell viability according to various concentrations of ethanol extract from Rhynchosia volubilis (EERV) to verify that EERV has cell survival effects
The degree of increase at 100 μg/mL was relatively small, it showed an overall 1.2-fold increase. These data demonstrate that EERV treatment is effective for cell survival (Supplementary Figure S1)
Summary
CAMP-PKA/ERK-CREB Pathway.Natural products have long been of interest as treatments for various diseases because of their low cost, high bioavailability, and low cytotoxicity compared to synthetic chemicals [1]. Accumulated evidence suggests that natural products have therapeutic effects on many diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and inflammation [2,3,4,5,6]. Among these natural products, soybeans, a healthy nutritional food, have long played an important role as a source of protein and fat in the dietary culture of. East Asian countries [7]. They contain various functional ingredients, such as isoflavones, saponins, anthocyanins, tocopherol, and phytic acid [8]. Rhynchosia volubilis Loureiro, a small black bean, is a perennial plant that grows in the mountains and fields of Korea, Japan, China, and Vietnam and has been used to treat kidney disease, neuralgia, postmenopausal osteoporosis, and senile dementia [9,10,11,12]
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