Production of Tripterygium regelii differentiated biomass as a sustainable source of celastrol

Preparations of Tripterygium have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for years. Nowadays, close to 400 secondary metabolites have been reported from Tripterygium species, with 95% being terpenoids. One of the most active terpenoids isolated from Tripterygium is celastrol which has been used for the treatment of asthma, chronic inflammation, and autoimmune and neuro-degenerative diseases [1]. Celastrol has been shown to have very powerful anti-cancer activity in many cancer types, including leukemia, glioma, melanoma, prostate cancer, and breast cancer with various treatment mechanisms. Even with such a great potential, Tripterygium is not cultivated at large scale. Here we present several system of in vitro propagation for Tripterygium regelii to obtain a sustainable production of celastrol. We evaluate the importance of plant genotype and culture system and we identified the best organ (i.e. leaves or roots) to produce celastrol in vitro. Quantification and identification of celastrol was performed with HPLC-DAD and LC/MS along with standard compounds. After six weeks of culture in bioreactors, plant biomass was increased approximately nine times. Celastrol accumulation in leaves was four-fold increased in rooted plants in both genotypes. However, roots shown the highest amount of celastrol per weight of biomass, almost four times more than in leaves.

References:

[1] Yang HS, Kim JY, Lee JH, Lee BW, Park KH, Shim KH, Lee MK, Seo KI. Celastrol isolated from Tripterygium regelii induces apoptosis through both caspase-dependent and -independent pathways in human breast cancer cells. Food Chem Toxicol 2011; 49: 527 – 532