What this means
Researchers grew aged-like blood vessel cells in a dish and treated them with asiaticoside, a plant compound. The cells showed fewer aging markers and less inflammation signals.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the abstract. The original is below.
- Who it was tested in
- Human blood vessel cells grown in a lab dish
- Kind of research
- A study
The science
- Original title
- Green Extraction and Molecular Docking-Guided Discovery of Asiaticoside as a Multi-Target Modulator of the SIRT1/HMGB1/p53-p21 Axis in H2O2-Induced Senescent Endothelial Cells.
- Authors
- Li W, Huang J, Zeng F et al.
- Journal
- Molecules (Basel, Switzerland)
- Published
- Oct 16, 2026
- Study type
- Study · in humans
- PMID
- 42883216 ↗
Abstract
Endothelial cell senescence is a key contributor to vascular ageing and cardiovascular diseases. Asiaticoside, a pentacyclic triterpenoid saponin from Centella asiatica, exhibits anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, yet its potential to modulate endothelial senescence remains unexplored. Herein, we report the molecular docking-guided discovery of asiaticoside as a multi-target modulator of the SIRT1/HMGB1/p53-p21 senescence regulatory axis. Asiaticoside was isolated via a green acid-hydrolysis strategy using dilute HCl as the extraction solvent, followed by polyamide enrichment and C18 reversed-phase purification (purity > 98%). Molecular docking revealed that asiaticoside binds favourably to SIRT1 (-8.1 kcal mol-1), the HMGB1-DNA complex (-10.7 kcal mol-1), and several senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP)-related inflammatory cytokines. In H2O2-induced senescent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), asiaticoside at 100 μM significantly reduced senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity and alleviated G0/G1 cell cycle arrest without cytotoxicity. Mechanistically, asiaticoside restored SIRT1 expression, suppressed the secretion of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, and HMGB1, downregulated p21 at both mRNA and protein levels, reduced p53 protein expression, and suppressed p16 mRNA expression. These findings demonstrate that asiaticoside attenuates endothelial senescence and SASP-driven inflammation, an effect associated with restoration of SIRT1 expression and suppression of the HMGB1/p53-p21 pathway.
Li W, Huang J, Zeng F et al. Green Extraction and Molecular Docking-Guided Discovery of Asiaticoside as a Multi-Target Modulator of the SIRT1/HMGB1/p53-p21 Axis in H2O2-Induced Senescent Endothelial Cells. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland). 2026. doi:10.3390/molecules31193451. PMID: 42883216. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42883216/