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While Lymphotoxin α (TNF-β), a product of lymphocytes, is known to play a pivotal role in inflammatory joint environment, resveratrol has been shown to possess anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective effects via activation of the histondeacetylase Sirt1. Whether TNF-β induction of inflammatory pathways in primary human chondrocytes (PCH) can be modulated by resveratrol, was investigated. Monolayer and alginate cultures of PCH were treated with TNF-β, anti-TNF-β, nicotinamide (NAM), antisense oligonucleotides against Sirt1 (Sirt1-ASO) and/or resveratrol and co-cultured with T-lymphocytes. We found that resveratrol suppressed, similar to anti-TNF-β, TNF-β-induced increased adhesiveness in an inflammatory microenvironment of T-lymphocytes and PCH. In contrast, knockdown of Sirt1 by mRNA abolished the inhibitory effects of resveratrol on the TNF-β-induced adhesiveness, suggesting the essential role of this enzyme for resveratrol-mediated anti-inflammatory signaling. Similar results were obtained in PCH stimulated with TNF-α. Sirt1-ASO, NAM or TNF-β, similar to T-lymphocytes induced inflammatory microenvironment by down-regulation of cartilage-specific proteins, Sox9, Ki67 and enhanced NF-κB-regulated gene products involved in inflammatory and degradative processes in cartilage (MMP-9/-13, COX-2, caspase-3), NF-κB activation and its translocation to the nucleus. Moreover, resveratrol reversed the TNF-β-, NAM-, T-lymphocytes-induced up-regulation of various NF-κB-regulated gene products. Down-regulation of Sirt1 by mRNA interference abrogated the effect of resveratrol on TNF-β-induced effects. Ultrastructural and cell viability assay investigations revealed that resveratrol revoked TNF-β-induced dose-dependent degradative/apoptotic morphological changes, cell viability and proliferation in PCH. Taken together, suppression of TNF-β-induced inflammatory microenvironment in PCH by resveratrol/Sirt1 might be a novel therapeutic approach for targeting inflammation during rheumatoid arthritis.

Bone loss/resorption or osteoporosis is a disease that is accelerated with aging and age-associated chronic diseases such as cancer. Bone loss has been linked with human multiple myeloma, breast cancer, and prostate cancer and is usually treated with bisphosphonates, and recently approved denosumab, an antibody against receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL). Because of the numerous side effects of the currently available drugs, the search continues for safe and effective therapies for bone loss. RANKL, a member of the TNF superfamily, has emerged as a major mediator of bone loss via activation of osteoclastogenesis. We have identified cardamonin, a chalcone isolated from Alpinia katsumadai Hayata that can affect osteoclastogenesis through modulation of RANKL. We found that treatment of monocytes with cardamonin suppressed RANKL-induced NF-κB activation and this suppression correlated with inhibition of IκBα kinase and of phosphorylation and degradation of IκBα, an inhibitor of NF-κB. Furthermore, cardamonin also downregulated RANKL-induced phosphorylation of MAPK including ERK and p38 MAPK. Cardamonin suppressed the RANKL-induced differentiation of monocytes to osteoclasts in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. We also found that an inhibitor of NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO) blocked RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis, indicating a direct link with NF-κB. Finally, osteoclastogenesis induced by human breast cancer cells or human multiple myeloma cells were completely suppressed by cardamonin. Collectively, our results indicate that cardamonin suppresses osteoclastogenesis induced by RANKL and tumor cells by suppressing activation of the NF-κB and MAPK pathway.

Pancreatic cancer (PaCa) is one of the most lethal cancers, with an estimated 5-year survival of