Glycyrrhizic acid nanoparticles inhibit LPS-induced inflammatory mediators in 264.7 mouse macrophages compared with unprocessed glycyrrhizic acid

Abstract

Wei Wang,1–3 Meng Luo,1–3 Yujie Fu,1–3 Song Wang,1–3 Thomas Efferth,4 Yuangang Zu1–3 1Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology, 2Engineering Research Center of Forest Bio-Preparation, 3State Engineering Laboratory of Bio-Resource Eco-Utilization, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China; 4Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany Abstract: Glycyrrhizic acid (GA), the main component of radix glycyrrhizae, has a variety of pharmacological activities. In the present study, suspensions of GA nanoparticles with the average particle size about 200nm were prepared by a supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process. Comparative studies were undertaken using lipopolysaccardide(LPS)-stimulated mouse macrophages RAW 264.7 as in vitro inflammatory model. Several important inflammation mediators such as NO, PGE2, TNF-α and IL-6 were examined. These markers were highly stimulated by LPS and were inhibited both by nano-GA and unprocessed GA in a dose-dependent manner, especially PGE2 and TNF-α. However nano-GA and unprocessed GA inhibited NO only at a high concentration. In general, we found that GA nanoparticle suspensions exhibited much better anti-inflammatory activities compared to unprocessed GA. Keywords: glycyrrhizic acid, nanoparticle, mouse macrophages RAW 264.7, inflammatory cytokines