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Obesity is a growing pandemic in both developed and developing countries. Lipid overload in obesity generates a chronic, low-grade inflammation state. Increased inflammation in heart and renal tissues has been shown to promote the progression of heart and renal damage in obesity. Previously, we found that a novel chalcone derivative, L6H21, inhibited lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory response. In the present study, we investigated the effects of L6H21 on inflammatory responses in culture and in animal models of lipid overload. We utilized palmitic acid (PA) challenging in mouse peritoneal macrophages and apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE -/- ) mice fed a high fat diet (HFD) to study whether L6H21 mitigates the inflammatory response. Our studies show that L6H21 significantly reduced PA-induced expression of inflammatory cytokines in macrophages by inhibiting mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) signaling pathways. L6H21 also reduced fibrosis in the kidney and heart tissues, and indices of inflammatory response in the ApoE -/- mice fed a HFD. These effects in vivo were also associated with inhibition of MAPK and NFκB signaling by L6H21. These findings strongly suggest that L6H21 may be a potential agent for high fat diet-induced injuries in heart and kidney., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

High glucose-induced inflammatory response in diabetic complications plays an important role in disease occurrence and development. With inflammatory cytokines and signaling pathways as important mediators, targeting inflammation may be a new avenue for treating diabetic complications. Chalcones are a class of natural products with various pharmacological activities. Previously, we identified L2H17 as a chalcone with good anti-inflammatory activity, inhibiting LPS-induced inflammatory response in macrophages. In this study, we examined L2H17's effect on hyperglycemia-induced inflammation both in mouse peritoneal macrophages and a streptozotocin-induced T1D mouse model. Our results indicate that L2H17 exhibits a strong inhibitory effect on the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, cell adhesion molecules, chemokines and macrophage adhesion via modulation of the MAPK/NF-κB pathway. Furthermore, in vivo oral administration of L2H17 resulted in a significant decrease in the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cell adhesion molecules, contributing to a reduction of key markers for renal and cardiac dysfunction and improvements in fibrosis and pathological changes in both renal and cardiac tissues of diabetic mice. These findings provide the evidence supporting targeting MAPK/NF-κB pathway may be effective therapeutic strategy for diabetic complications, and suggest that L2H17 may be a promising anti-inflammatory agent with potential as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of renal and cardiac diabetic complications., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Inflammation plays a central role in the development and progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Researches on novel anti-inflammatory agents may offer new opportunities for the treatment of DN. We previously found a chalcone derivative L6H21 could inhibit LPS-induced cytokine release from macrophages. The aim of this study was to investigate whether L6H21 could ameliorate the high glucose-mediated inflammation in NRK-52E cells and attenuate the inflammation-mediated renal injury. According to the results, L6H21 showed a great inhibitory effect on the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, cell adhesion molecules, chemokines, and macrophage adhesion via down-regulation of NF-κB/MAPKs activity in high glucose-stimulated renal NRK-52E cells. Further, in vivo oral administration with L6H21 at a dosage of 20 mg/kg/2 days showed a decreased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, cell adhesion molecules, which subsequently contributed to the inhibition on renal macrophage infiltration, the reduction of serum creatinine and BUN levels, and the improvement on the fibrosis and pathological changes in the renal tissues of diabetic mice. These findings provided that chalcone derived L6H21 may be a promising anti-inflammatory agent and have the potential in the therapy of diabetic nephropathy, and importantly, MAPK/NF-κB signaling system may be a novel therapeutic target for human DN in the future., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)