Alzheimer disease (AD), a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, is one of the leading causes of dementia. However, there is no effective drug for this disease to date. Picrasma quassioides (D.Don) Benn, a Chinese traditional medicine, was used mainly for the treatment of inflammation, fever, microbial infection and dysentery. In this paper, we reported that the EtOAc extract of Picrasma quassioides stems showed potential neuroprotective activities in l -glutamate-stimulated PC12 and Aβ 25-35 -stimulated SH-SY5Y cell models, as well as improved memory and cognitive abilities in AD mice induced by amyloid-β peptide. Moreover, it was revealed that the anti-AD mechanism was related to suppressing neuroinflammatory and reducing Aβ 1-42 deposition using ELISA assay kits. To clarify the active components of the EtOAc extract of Picrasma quassioides stems, a systematic phytochemistry study led to isolate and identify six β-carboline alkaloids ( 1 – 6 ), seven canthin-6-one alkaloids ( 7 – 13 ), and five quassinoids ( 14 – 18 ). Among them, four β-carbolines ( 1 – 3 , and 6 ) and six canthin-6-ones ( 7 – 11 , and 13 ) exhibited potential neuroprotective activities in vitro . Based on these date, the structure-activity relationships of alkaloids were discussed. Furthermore, molecular docking experiments showed that compounds 2 and 3 have high affinity for both of dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYPKIA) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE).
IntroductionThe effectiveness of therapy is strongly impacted by the resistance of lung cancer cells to cisplatin. The objective of this research is to characterize the impact of ailanthone on cisplatin resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and examine any potential in vivo and in vitro molecular pathways.MethodsFollowing treatment of A549/DDP cells with ailanthone and cisplatin, cell survival and apoptosis were measured using flow cytometry and Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) assays, respectively. mRFP-GFP-LC3 adenovirus transfection was used to track autophagy, and protein expression levels were analyzed by western blotting. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was used after the organs of the mice were removed for in vivo investigations. In A549/DDP cells, ailanthone and cisplatin together induced autophagy and apoptosis in a dose and time-dependent manner (p< 0.05). After receiving combined treatment with ailanthone and cisplatin, the expression levels of cleaved caspase-3, Bcl-2, cleaved PARP, Beclin 1, LC3B-II were considerably elevated by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.ResultsOur findings show that ailanthone, without causing adverse effects in vivo, greatly suppressed the growth of A549/DDP-grafted tumors and improved the anti-tumor efficaciousness of cisplatin.ConclusionAccording to this study, ailanthone may increase sensitivity to cisplatin and promote autophagy and death in NSCLC A549/DDP cells through the signaling pathway of PI3K/AKT/mTOR.