Piperhancins A and B, Two Pairs of Antineuroinflammatory Cycloneolignane Enantiomers from Piper hancei

Two pairs of cycloneolignane enantiomers, piperhancins A and B (1 and 2, respectively), along with two enantiomeric pairs of biosynthetic related neolignanes, hancinone C (3) and piperhancin C (4), were isolated from the stems of Piper hancei. Compound 1 is an unprecedented 1′,2:1,2′-dicyclo-8,3′-neolignane. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by spectroscopic analyses, X-ray diffraction, and electronic circular dichroism calculations. Among all of the isolates, compounds (+)-1, (−)-1, (+)-2, (−)-2, and (+)-3 could significantly inhibit the production of nitric oxide secreted by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation in BV-2 microglial cells, with IC50 values of 1.1–26.3 μM. In addition, compound (−)-1 could decrease the mRNA levels of iNOS, IL-6, and TNF-α induced by LPS in BV-2 microglial cells.