Zebrafish facilitates drug screening: potential of 3-deoxy-andrographoside from Chuanxinlian ) as an anti-inflammatory agent.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of diterpene lactones from Chuanxinlian () (AP). METHODS: We firstly adopted zebrafish, a novel and ideal animal model for high-throughput drug screening, to investigate the anti-inflammatory activities of 17 diterpene lactones isolated from AP. RESULTS: The results showed that most of diterpene lactones displayed significant anti-inflammatory effects in lipopolysaccharide microinjection-, copper sulfate exposure- or tail transection-induced zebrafish inflammation models. Moreover, diterpene lactone 3-deoxy-andrographoside (AP-5) was firstly found to attenuate inflammatory responses, which was closely associated with the myeloid differentiation primary response 88/nuclear factor-kappa B and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 pathways. CONCLUSION: Our research sheds light on the inestimable roles of zebrafish in high-throughput drug screening, elucidates the potent inhibitory effects of diterpene lactones against inflammation and indicates that AP-5 may serve as a potential alternative agent for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.