Cloricromene, a semi-synthetic coumarin derivative, inhibits tumor necrosis factor-alpha production at a pre-transcriptional level.

Cloricromene decreases myocardial infarct size after ischemic-reperfusion injury in vivo, and it has been suggested that this is due to inhibition of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). The purpose of this work was to characterize the mechanism of cloricromene-induced inhibition of TNF-alpha in rat macrophages. Cloricromene inhibited lipopolysaccharide-induced TNF-alpha release in a dose-dependent manner (IC(50)=5.9 +/- 0.8 microM). This was not due to cytotoxicity, as cloricromene was well tolerated up to 500 microM. Cloricromene inhibited lipopolysaccharide-induced expression of TNF-alpha mRNA, which suggests a pre-transcriptional effect. We then investigated the early signal transduction pathway triggered by lipopolysaccharide. The binding of lipopolysaccharide to its receptor CD14 activates protein kinase C and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). Cloricromene inhibited NF-kappaB activation in a dose-dependent manner, but affected protein kinase C translocation only slightly. We then established that cloricromene inhibited lipopolysaccharide-induced cellular oxidative activity, which is important for NF-kappaB activation. Our results show that cloricromene interferes with the early signal transduction pathway triggered by lipopolysaccharide.