The p38 MAPK inhibitor JLU1124 inhibits the inflammatory response induced by lipopolysaccharide through the MAPK-NF-κB pathway in RAW264.7 macrophages

•Our results showed that a potent p38 MAPK inhibitor, JLU1124, can inhibit p38 phosphorylation efficiently.•Compared to the classic p38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580, JLU1124 inhibits p38 phosphorylation at low concentrations.•We discovered the significantly inhibitions of JLU1124 on cytokines in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages.•We determined JLU1124 have anti-inflammatory action by inhibit p38MAPK/Akt/NF-κB pathway.

Our previous results showed that JLU1124 is a potent p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitor. Compared to the classic p38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580, JLU1124 inhibits p38 phosphorylation at low concentrations without cytotoxicity on cells. p38 MAPK is a known target for inflammation treatment. Thus, we became interested in whether JLU1124 has anti-inflammatory effects. We used LPS stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages as a model of inflammation to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of JLU1124. Our results showed that p38 phosphorylation, the production of nitric oxide (NO), interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, the mRNA and protein levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 were enhanced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). At concentrations of less than 10 μmol/L, JLU1124 inhibits p38 phosphorylation in a dose-dependent manner and significantly suppresses LPS-induced production of NO, IL-6 and TNF-α, and decreases the expressions of iNOS and COX-2 in RAW264.7 macrophages which indicate that JLU1124 has anti-inflammatory effects. However, JLU1124 has no significant effect on the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase which was involved in inflammation. Furthermore, our results showed that JLU1124 inhibits NF-κB inhibitor (IκB)α phosphorylation, nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity of NF-κB induced by LPS which may be through suppression of Akt phosphorylation. In conclusion, our study indicates that JLU1124 efficiently inhibits p38 phosphorylation and has anti-inflammatory effects in LPS-treated RAW264.7 macrophages. The anti-inflammatory mechanism of JLU1124 is mainly through decreasing Akt phosphorylation and inhibiting IκBα phosphorylation, thus suppressing NF-κB activation and nuclear translocation.