The citrus flavanone naringenin inhibits inflammatory signalling in glial cells and protects against neuroinflammatory injury

Vafeiadou, K., Vauzour, D., Lee, H. Y., Rodriguez-Mateos, A., Williams, R. J. and Spencer, J. P. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2931-7274 (2009) The citrus flavanone naringenin inhibits inflammatory signalling in glial cells and protects against neuroinflammatory injury. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 484 (1). pp. 100-109. ISSN 0003-9861 doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2009.01.016

Abstract/Summary

Neuroinflammation plays an integral role in the progression of neurodegeneration. In this study we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of different classes of flavonoids (flavanones, flavanols and anthocyanidins) in primary mixed glial cells. We found that the flavanones naringenin and hesperetin and the flavols (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin, but not the anthocyanidins cyanidin and pelargonidin, attenuated LPS/IFN-gamma-induced TNF-alpha production in glial cells. Naringenin also inhibited LPS/IFN-gamma-induced iNOS expression and nitric oxide production in glial cells, thus showing the strongest antiinflammatory activity among all flavonoids tested. Moreover, naringenin protected against inflammatory-induced neuronal death in a primary neuronal-glial co-culture system. Naringenin also inhibited LPS/IFN-gamma-induced p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation and downstream signal transducer and activator of transcription-1 (STAT-1) in LPS/IFN-gamma stimulated primary mixed glial cells. Taken together, our results suggest that naringenin may produce an anti-inflammatory effect in LPS/IFN-gamma stimulated glial cells that may be due to its interaction with p38 signalling cascades and the STAT-I trascription factor. (C) 2009 Elseiver Inc. All rights reserved.