Abstract
Sinomenine (SIN) is an isoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Sinomenii Caulis, a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Clinical trials have shown that SIN has comparable efficacy to methotrexate in treating patients with RA but with fewer adverse effects. In this study, we explored the anti-inflammatory effects and therapeutic targets of SIN in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells and in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice. LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells were pretreated with SIN (160, 320, 640 µM); and CIA mice were administered SIN (25, 50 and 100 mg·kg-1·d-1, i.p.) for 30 days. We first conducted a solvent-induced protein precipitation (SIP) assay in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells and found positive evidence for the direct binding of SIN to guanylate-binding protein 5 (GBP5), which was supported by molecular simulation docking, proteomics, and binding affinity assays (KD = 3.486 µM). More importantly, SIN treatment markedly decreased the expression levels of proteins involved in the GBP5/P2X7R-NLRP3 pathways in both LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells and the paw tissue of CIA mice. Moreover, the levels of IL-1β, IL-18, IL-6, and TNF-α in both the supernatant of inflammatory cells and the serum of CIA mice were significantly reduced. This study illustrates a novel anti-inflammatory mechanism of SIN; SIN suppresses the activity of NLRP3-related pathways by competitively binding GBP5 and downregulating P2X7R protein expression, which ultimately contributes to the reduction of IL-1β and IL-18 production. The binding specificity of SIN to GBP5 and its inhibitory effect on GBP5 activity suggest that SIN has great potential as a specific GBP5 antagonist.