Daily chemical evodiamine from Chinese prickly ash attenuates osteoclast differentiation through RANKL induced NFAT pathways

- An active compound evodiamine is found from daily food condiment Chinese prickly ash.
- Evodiamine has obvious anti-osteoclastogenesis activity in vitro.
- Evodiamine inhibits osteoclast differentiation by attenuating rRANKL-induced phosphorylation of ERK.

Osteoclasts (OCs) play an important role in a variety of lytic bone diseases. New bone protective therapies exploration has been focused on the suppression of OC formation. In this study, we report that daily chemical evodiamine from Chinese prickly ash, a very common sauce used for stewing meats, attenuates RANKL-induced OC formation, the expression level of OC-specific marker genes and OC marker protein in vitro. Mechanistically, evodiamine dose- and time-dependently blocked the RANKL-induced activation of ERK and c-Fos as well as the induction of NFATc1, which is essential for OC formation. These data suggest that evodiamine might be a useful alternative therapy in preventing or treating osteolytic diseases.