Abstract
Paeoniflorin is one of the active ingredients of Paeonia lactiflora Pall., a novel traditional herbal medicine exerting pharmacological effects including antihyperlipidemic, neuroprotective, and anti-hepatofibrosis effects. Liver X receptor (LXR) acts as a ligand-activated transcription factor to exhibit antihyperlipidemic and neuroprotective effects. In this study, the activity of paeoniflorin against LXR was evaluated by the mammalian one-hybrid and transient transfection reporter assays. The results showed that paeoniflorin transactivated GAL4, rat cholesterol 7 α-hydroxylase, phospholipid transfer protein, and ATP-binding cassette A1 gene promoters in dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the docking study demonstrated that paeoniflorin resided in the LXR ligand-binding pocket in the similar manner as GSK 3987, a novel LXR agonist. These results indicated that paeoniflorin might exert pharmacological effects through LXR pathway.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank National Science Council (NSC 97-2320-B-017-001) for financial support. He also appreciates Dr J.Y. Chiang at College of Medicine, Northeastern Ohio Universities, for kindly offering the rat CYP7A1 reporter plasmid and Dr C.J. Fielding at University of California at San Francisco for kindly offering the ABCA1 reporter plasmid.