Natural Flavone Jaceosidin is a Neuroinflammation Inhibitor

Jaceosidin is a naturally occurring flavone with pharmacological activity. Jaceosidin, as one of the major constituents of the medicinal herbs of the genus Artemisia, has been shown to exert anticancer, anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive effects. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of jaceosidin on microglia and neuroinflammation. Microglia are the innate immune cells in the central nervous system, and they play a central role in the initiation and maintenance of neuroinflammation. We report that jaceosidin inhibits inflammatory activation of microglia, reducing nitric oxide (NO) production and proinflammatory cytokine expression. IC50 for NO inhibition was 27 +/- 0.4M. The flavone also attenuated microglial neurotoxicity in the microglia/neuroblastoma co-culture. Systemic injection of jaceosidin ameliorated neuroinflammation in the mouse model of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis. These results indicate that plant flavone jaceosidin is a microglial inhibitor with anti-neuroinflammation activity. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.