Abstract

Coumarin was first discovered in Tonka bean and then widely in other plants. Coumarin has an anticoagulant effect, and its derivative, warfarin, is a vitamin K analogue that inhibits the synthesis of clotting factors and is more widely used in the clinical treatment of endovascular embolism. At present, many artificial chemical synthesis methods can be used to modify the structure of coumarin to develop many effective drugs with low toxicity. In this study, we investigated the effects of six coumarin derivatives on the platelet aggregation induced by adenosine diphosphate (ADP). We found that the six coumarin derivatives inhibited the active form of GPIIb/IIIa on platelets and hence inhibit platelet aggregation. We found that 7-hydroxy-3-phenyl 4H-chromen-4-one (7-hydroxyflavone) had the most severe effect. In addition, we further analyzed the downstream signal transduction of the ADP receptor, including the release of calcium ions and the regulation of cAMP, which were inhibited by the six coumarin derivatives selected in this study. These results suggest that coumarin derivatives inhibit coagulation by inhibiting the synthesis of coagulation factors and they may also inhibit platelet aggregation.