MedicalResearch.com Interview with: PD Dr. Andreas Koeberle Lehrstuhl für Pharmazeutische/Medizinische Chemie Institut für Pharmazie Biologisch-Pharmazeutische Fakultät Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Philosophenweg Jena MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Natural products from plants used in traditional medicine are valuable sources for identifying novel strategies as well as lead structures for drug development. The diterpenoids carnosol and carnosic acids from Salvia spp. (sage) represent such candidate compounds. They exert prominent anti-inflammatory activities though their molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood, which hampers their pharmacological use. Our study investigated the potential of carnosol and carnosic acid in inflammatory pain and addressed the cellular consequences and the molecular interactions with key targets. We demonstrate that the two diterpenoids have anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects in established mouse models of inflammation, and describe 5-lipoxygenase and microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase-1, two key enzymes of inflammation, as primary targets. Moreover, we characterized the functional consequences of enzyme inhibition in a cellular context and investigated structural aspects of ligand/target interactions. (more…)