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Bioactivity-guided fractionation resulted in the isolation of two new ent-labdane diterpenoids (1-2), along with eighteen known congeners (3-20) from the aerial parts of Andrographis paniculata. Except andrographolide (3) and isoandrographolide (4), eighteen diterpenoids (1-2, 5-20) exhibited potent anticomplement activity with the CH 50 and AP 50 values of 23.1-638.3 μg/mL and 54.2-603.9 μg/mL, respectively. The structure-activity relationships of the isolates showed that 14-dehydroxylation, glycosidation and the opening of lactone were essential for anticomplement activity. Although inactive, andrographolide (3) was successfully transformed to anticomplement compounds (5 and 10) in vitro by human fecal bacteria, indicating that this major ent-labdane diterpenoid of A. paniculata might also exhibit anticomplement activity in vivo through their potential active metabolites. The targets of several bioactive ent-labdane diterpenoids in complement activation cascade were identified as well., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cp40 is a 14-amino acid cyclic analog of the peptidic complement inhibitor compstatin that binds with sub-nanomolar affinity to complement component C3 and has already shown promise in various models of complement-related diseases. The preclinical and clinical development of this compound requires a robust, accurate, and sensitive method for quantitatively monitoring Cp40 in biological samples. In this study, we describe the development and validation of an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography electrospray mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of Cp40 in human and non-human primate (NHP) plasma. Isotope-labeled Cp40 was used as an internal standard, allowing for the accurate and absolute quantitation of Cp40. Labeled and non-labeled Cp40 were extracted from plasma using reversed phase-solid phase extraction, with recovery rates exceeding 80%, indicating minor matrix effects. The triply charged states of Cp40 and isotope-labeled Cp40 were detected at m/z 596.60 and 600.34, respectively, via a Q-TOF mass spectrometer and were used for quantitation. The method was linear in the range of 0.18-3.58μg/mL (r 2 ≥0.99), with precision values below 0.71% in NHP and 0.77% in human plasma. The accuracy of the method ranged from -2.17% to 17.99% in NHP and from -0.26% to 15.75% in human plasma. The method was successfully applied to the quantitation of Cp40 in cynomolgus monkey plasma after an initial intravenous bolus of 2mg/kg followed by repetitive subcutaneous administration at 1mg/kg. The high reproducibility, accuracy, and robustness of the method developed here render it suitable for drug monitoring of Cp40, and potentially other compstatin analogs, in both human and NHP plasma samples during pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest disclosure D.R. and J.D.L. are the inventors of patents and/or patent applications that describe the use of complement inhibitors for therapeutic purposes. J.D.L. is the founder of Amyndas Pharmaceuticals, which is developing complement inhibitors for clinical applications. The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Two new germacrane sesquiterpenes, yedoensins A (1) and B (2), together with 8 known ones (3-10) were isolated from the herb of Viola yedoensis. The structures of the new compounds were established by extensive spectroscopic means including 1D ((1)H and (13)C) and 2D NMR experiments (HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY) as well as HR-ESI-MS analysis. The absolute configurations of the known sesquiterpenes versicolactone B (3) and madolin W (6) were determined by a modified Mosher's method for the first time. The sesquiterpenes 1-3, and 5-9 exhibited anti-complement activity against the classical pathway (CP) and the alternative pathway (AP) with the CH50 and AP50 values ranging from 0.14 to 0.37mg/mL and 0.32 to 0.54mg/mL, respectively. Preliminary mechanism study using complement-depleted sera showed that yedoensin A (1) and versicolactone B (3) acted on C1q, C3 and C9, while madolin W (6), aristoyunnolin E (7) and madolin Y (9) interacted with C1q, C3, C5 and C9 components in the complement activation cascade., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present study aimed to investigate the metabolism of Forsythoside A (FTA) by human fecal bacteria to clarify the relationship between its intestinal metabolism and its pharmacological activities. FTA was incubated with human fecal microflora in vitro to investigate its metabolic process, and highly sensitive and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) was performed using MetaboLynx software for metabolite analysis. Caffeic acid (CA) and hydroxytyrosol (HT) were obtained by hydrolysis of FTA, and CA was further hydrogenated to form 3,4-dihydroxybenzenepropionic acid (DCA). The anticomplementary, antimicrobial and antiendotoxin activities of FTA and its metabolites by human fecal microflora were evaluated in vitro with a hemolysis assay, the agar disc-diffusion method, the MIC value and the gel clot LAL assay, respectively. The metabolites showed higher biological activity than FTA, especially HT and DCA. Orally administered FTA may be metabolized to HT and DCA, and the pharmacological effects of FTA may be dependent on intestinal bacterial metabolism., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Complement inhibitors expressed on tumor cells provide an evasion mechanism against mAb therapy and may modulate the development of an acquired antitumor immune response. Here we investigate a strategy to amplify mAb-targeted complement activation on a tumor cell, independent of a requirement to target and block complement inhibitor expression or function, which is difficult to achieve in vivo. We constructed a murine fusion protein, CR2Fc, and demonstrated that the protein targets to C3 activation products deposited on a tumor cell by a specific mAb, and amplifies mAb-dependent complement activation and tumor cell lysis in vitro. In syngeneic models of metastatic lymphoma (EL4) and melanoma (B16), CR2Fc significantly enhanced the outcome of mAb therapy. Subsequent studies using the EL4 model with various genetically modified mice and macrophage-depleted mice revealed that CR2Fc enhanced the therapeutic effect of mAb therapy via both macrophage-dependent FcγR-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, and by direct complement-mediated lysis. Complement activation products can also modulate adaptive immunity, but we found no evidence that either mAb or CR2Fc treatment had any effect on an antitumor humoral or cellular immune response. CR2Fc represents a potential adjuvant treatment to increase the effectiveness of mAb therapy of cancer.