- 著者
- Tadahide Furuno Mamoru Nakanishi
- 出版者
- The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan
- 雑誌
- Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (ISSN:09186158)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.35, no.2, pp.178-183, 2012-02-01 (Released:2012-02-01)
- 参考文献数
- 29
- 被引用文献数
- 21 30
Kefir is a traditional fermented milk beverage produced by kefir grains in the Caucasian countries. Kefiran produced by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens in kefir grains is an exopolysaccharide having a repeating structure with glucose and galactose residues in the chain sequence and has been suggested to exert many health-promoting effects such as immunomodulatory, hypotensive, hypocholesterolemic activities. Here we investigated the effects of kefiran on mast cell activation induced by antigen. Pretreatment with kefiran significantly inhibited antigen-induced Ca2+ mobilization, degranulation, and tumor necrosis factor-α production in bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) in a dose-dependent manner. The phosphorylation of Akt, glycogen synthase kinase 3β, and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) after antigen stimulation was also suppressed by pretreatment of BMMCs with kefiran. These findings indicate that kefiran suppresses mast cell degranulation and cytokine production by inhibiting the Akt and ERKs pathways, suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect for kefiran.
- 著者
- Tohru Obata Yuka Suzuki Noriko Ogawa Ippei Kurimoto Hiromitsu Yamamoto Tadahide Furuno Takuma Sasaki Motohiro Tanaka
- 出版者
- 公益社団法人日本薬学会
- 雑誌
- Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (ISSN:09186158)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.37, no.5, pp.802-807, 2014-05-01 (Released:2014-05-01)
- 参考文献数
- 25
- 被引用文献数
- 3 11
Sapacitabine (CS-682 or CYC682; 1-[2-C-cyano-2-deoxy-β-D-arabino-pentfuranosyl]N4-palmitoyl cytosine), a novel antitumor 2′-deoxycytidine analogue, shows a marked reduction in the water solubility because of the fatty acid side chain on the N4 group of the cytosine moiety. Poor water solubility is one of the important reasons why sapacitabine does not exert maximum antitumor activity. Therefore, we attempted to improve the water solubility of sapacitabine using a novel surfactant, Soluplus®, which consisted of a polyvinyl caprolactam–polyvinyl acetate–polyethylene glycol graft copolymer. In this study, we examined whether Soluplus® increased the water solubility and an antitumor activity of sapacitabine. The cytotoxicity of Soluplus® alone was lower than that of Tween 80 and Kolliphor® D-α-tocopherylpolyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS). The water solubility and the chemosensitivity of sapacitabine against several tumor cell lines to sapacitabine markedly increased upon using Soluplus®. In addition, the potential of Soluplus® including sapacitabine in increasing the antitumor activity was compared with sapacitabine alone in vivo. Although the total dose in the experimental period was considerably lower than the effective dose of sapacitabine alone, the life span of mice treated with sapacitabine containing 40 mg/mL Soluplus® increased by 150%. If Soluplus® was used as the solubilizing agent in clinical trials of sapacitabine, a low administration dose was appeared to require, and thus side effects might be prevented.