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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Quantifying Agonist Activity at G Protein-coupled Receptors
Published on: December 26, 2011
Isoprenylated flavonoids from Morus nigra and their PPAR γ agonistic activities
Liang-Jin Xu1, Mei-Hua Yu2, Chun-Yue Huang1
1Innovation Center of Chinese Medicine, China State Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry, Shanghai 201203, China.
Abstract:
A novel dihydroflavonol unprecedentedly with a prenyl group at C-2, nigragenon A (1), four new sanggenon-type flavonones, nigragenons B-E (2-5), along with six known isoprenylated flavonoids (6-11) were isolated from the twigs of Morus nigra. Their structures were elucidated through extensive analysis of spectroscopic data. Interestingly, compound 1 was the first reported biogenetic precursor of sanggenon-type flavanones and the biogenetic pathway from 1 to sanggenol F was proposed. The PPAR γ agonistic activity was investigated in HEK293 cells using dual luciferase reporter assay. Compounds 2, 4, 7, and 9 showed obvious agonistic activities on PPAR γ, and compound 2 was a potential PPAR γ partial agonist. Moreover, the preliminary structure-activity relationships for the tested compounds were discussed.
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