Novel flavonoids as anti-inflammatory agents in alcoholism

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Flavonoids are ubiquitous secondary metabolites in plants with many known health benefits, which are mostly ascribed to their potent anti-oxidant activity. However, a search for novel nicotinic ligands, using high throughput pharmacological screening of a native plant extract library, and subsequently a pure flavonoid library, led to the highly surprising conclusion that some methoxylated quercetin-like flavonoid derivatives have partial agonist activity, selectively at the alpha7-subtype of nicotinic receptor for acetylcholine (nicAChR). Activation of these receptors on microglia and macrophages is known to reduce the release of inflammatory mediators by these cells, thereby reducing chronic inflammation in the CNS and peripheral tissues. Since there is a wealth of evidence which implicates chronic inflammatory changes in the neurodegeneration and organ damage associated with alcoholism, this implies that these specific flavonoids are of potential value for these