Cepharanthine (biscoclaurine alkaloid) treatment in endotoxic shock of suckling rats

Gram-negative sepsis/septic shock causes significant mortality in newborns. However, there has been no established method for newborn endotoxic shock treatment. Prostaglandins play a role in endotoxic shock. Cepharanthine is a biscoclaurine alkaloid that primarily inhibits phospholipase A2. Therefore, the effects of cepharanthine have been studied on endotoxic shock in newborn rats. Cepharanthine decreased the 24 h mortality of endotoxic shock in a dose-related manner. At the dose of 0.2 mg kg-1 it effectively reduced the mortality from 90 to 21% in newborn rats. It also induced hyperglycaemia in control rats and blunted the hypoglycaemia of endotoxic shock. Cepharanthine did not suppress body weight gain nor did it delay death as seen with glucocorticoid treatment. We conclude that cepharanthine is beneficial in the treatment of newborn endotoxic shock.