Phenolic compounds from cultivated Glycyrrhiza uralensis and their PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitory activities

Abstract

One new compound (1) and fifteen known phenolic compounds (2–16) were isolated and identified from the roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, including ten flavonoids, four coumarins, and two benzofurans compounds. Their structures were identified by NMR and MS analysis. Most of these compounds showed weak PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitory activities with the inhibition ratios from 30 to 65% at 100 uM. To our knowledge, it is the first time that their PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition activities were reported.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Glycyrrhiza uralensis
• flavonoids
• coumarins
• PD-1/PD-L1

Acknowledgments

Authors were thankful to Analysis and Test Center, Lanzhou University, and Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the grant from the Major International S & T Cooperation Project, Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2016YFE0129000); Research project of Gansu Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (GZK-2015-21); and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2017-k26).