Bicyclol promotes toll-like 2 receptor recruiting inosine 5′-monophosphate dehydrogenase II to exert its anti-inflammatory effect

Abstract

The aim was to investigate potential targets and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of bicyclol, which has been extensively used in clinic for decades in China. Tar-Fis-Dock, virtual molecular docking system, showed that inosine 5′-monophosphate dehydrogenase II (IMPDH II) has the highest probability of binding to bicyclol. To investigate the possible role of IMPDH II in mechanisms of bicyclol, recombinant enzyme models, mice splenic lymphocytes, and human lymphocytes were used. Bicyclol (1–5 μM) significantly inhibited the proliferation of mice splenic lymphocytes stimulated by concanavalin A (conA). However, bicyclol did not show inhibitory effects on proliferation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMC) induced by phytohemagglutinin (PHA). IMPDH II enzyme kinetic model showed that bicyclol only had a slight regulatory effect on IMPDH II enzyme activity. These results revealed that bicyclol may be not a conventional inhibitor of IMPDH II. Further studies showed that bicyclol could promote recruitment of IMPDH II by active toll-like 2 receptor (TLR2) complex. Such effects lead to the reduction of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) expression, increase in I-κB expression, and decrease in cytokine release, including tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin 1β (IL-1β). It may be a new mechanism of bicyclol for its anti-inflammatory effect.

Keywords:

• Bicyclol
• IMPDH II
• TLR2
• lymphocytes
• NF-κB

Acknowledgments

We appreciate associate professor Guo Yanshen from Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College for contribution to virtual molecular docking data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.