• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.2717-2721
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• 2011

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are a subfamily of nuclear receptors (NRs). Human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (hPPAR${\gamma}$) has been implicated in the pathology of numerous diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and cancer. ELISA-based hPPAR${\gamma}$ activation assay showed that biapigenin increased the binding between hPPAR${\gamma}$ and steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1) by approximately 3-fold. In order to confirm that biapigenin binds to hPPAR${\gamma}$, fluorescence quenching experiment was performed. The results showed that biapigenin has higher binding affinity to hPPAR${\gamma}$ at nanomolar concentrations compared to indomethacin. Biapigenin showed anticancer activity against HeLa cells. Biapigenin was noncytotoxic against HaCa T cell. All these data implied that biapigenin may be a potent agonist of hPPAR${\gamma}$ with anticancer activity. We will further investigate its anticancer effects against human cervical cancer.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.107-119
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• 2012

Polymerization of monomeric amyloid-${\beta}$ peptides ($A{\beta}$) into soluble oligomers and insoluble fibrils is one of the major pathways triggering the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using small molecules to prevent the polymerization of $A{\beta}$ peptides can, therefore, be an effective therapeutic strategy for AD. In this study, we investigated the effects of mono- and bi-flavonoids on $A{\beta}42$ toxicity and fibrillogenesis and found that the bi-flavonoid, taiwaniaflavone (TF) effectively and specifically inhibits $A{\beta}$ toxicity and fibrillogenesis. Compared to TF, the mono-flavonoid apigenin (AP) is less effective and less specific. Our data showed that differential effects of the mono- and bi-flavonoids on $A{\beta}$ fibrillogenesis correlate with their varying cytoprotective efficacies. We also found that other bi-flavonoids, namely 2',8"-biapigenin, amentoflavone, and sumaflavone, can also effectively inhibit $A{\beta}$ toxicity and fibrillogenesis, implying that the participation of two mono-flavonoids in a single bi-flavonoid molecule enhanced their activity. Bi-flavonoids, while strongly inhibited $A{\beta}$ fibrillogenesis, accumulated nontoxic $A{\beta}$ oligomeric structures, suggesting that these are off-pathway-oligomers. Moreover, TF abrogated the toxicity of preformed $A{\beta}$ oligomers and fibrils, indicating that TF and other bi-flavonoids may also reduce the toxicity of toxic $A{\beta}$ species. Altogether, our data clearly show that bi-flavonoids, possibly due to the possession of two $A{\beta}$ binders separated by an appropriate size linker, are likely to be promising therapeutics to suppress $A{\beta}$ toxicity.