The effect of corylin in regulating NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages

Abstract

Chronic inflammation is associated with several diseases and cancers. The activation of inflammasomes has been indicated as a main role in chronic inflammation, which is a group of cytosolic protein complexes, classically consisting an NOD‐like protein (NLR), the adaptor apoptosis‐associated speck‐like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), and caspase‐1. Activation of inflammasome results in assembly of the inflammasome, caspase‐1 activation as well as IL‐1β and IL‐18 secretion. A number of studies have reported that increased concentration of IL‐1β protein in tumor tissues is associated with poor prognosis for cancer patients.Corylin is a main compound isolated from Psoralea corylifloia L., a common Chinese herbal medicine. The Psoralea corylifloia L. has been used in the treatment of skin diseases and osteoporosis. The extracts of this plant has been found to have anti‐oxidative, anti‐bacterial, anti‐diabetic, neuroprotective and immunomodulatory effects. Our previous study demonstrated that corylin inhibits the production of TNF‐α, IL‐6 and NO by murine macrophages through inhibiting the activities of MAPKs and NF‐κB. In the present study, we will examine the effect of corylin in regulating NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages. We used murine macrophages (J774A.1 cells) and human monocytes (THP‐1 cells), and treated with LPS/ATP to induce the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome, then gave different doses of corylin to investigate its effects. The supernatant is used to determine the level of IL‐1β by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the lysates is used to investigate the level of NLRP3 inflammasome associated protein by Western blot. Our experimental results indicated that corylin inhibits the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in both murine and human macrophages. We will further examine the effect of corylin on the polarization of macrophages.Support or Funding InformationThis study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C. (Grant No. MOST 107‐2320‐B‐037‐019).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.