Lignans from the roots of Acorus tatarinowii Schott ameliorate β amyloid-induced toxicity in transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans.

A novel tetralignan, tatarinan T ( 1 ) with the rare C8-C7′ linkage pattern, along with a known monolignan ( 2 ) were isolated from the roots of Acorus tatarinowii Schott. Their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of NMR and X-ray diffraction analysis. We evaluated the protective effects of two rare lignans against β-amyloid toxicity by using CL4176 transgenic C. elegans model for the first time, and found that they significantly delayed paralysis of worms at the concentration of 100 μM. Compound 2 exhibited the more potential protective effect against β-amyloid toxicity, its value of PT 50 extended up to 62.3% at 100 μM compared with control, especially, it still has 30.8% extension at 10 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]