Frontiers in Nutrition
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2021
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IF 6.576
Wei Wei,Fan Xiao-Man,Jia Shao-Hui,Zhang Xi-Ping,Zhang Zhao,Zhang Xue-Jun,Zhang Jiu-Xun,Zhang Ye-Wang
Sea cucumbers are one of many marine echinoderm animals that contain valuable nutrients and medicinal compounds. The bioactive substances in sea cucumbers make them have promising biological and pharmacological properties, including antioxidant, anti-bacterial, and anti-tumor effects. In this study, sea cucumber intestinal peptide (SCIP) is a small molecular oligopeptide (<1,000 Da) extracted from sea cucumber intestines hydrolyzed by alkaline protease. The analysis of amino acid composition showed that hydrophobic amino acids and branched-chain amino acids were rich in SCIP. Nowadays, although increasing studies have revealed the biological functions of the sea cucumber active substances, there are few studies on the function of SCIP. Furthermore, due to the anti-cancer activity being an essential characteristic of sea cucumber active substances, we also investigated the anti-cancer potential and the underlying mechanism of SCIP in vivo and in vitro. The results indicate that SCIP inhibits the growth of MCF-7 tumor cells in zebrafish and increases the apoptosis of human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Further mechanism studies confirm that SCIP promotes the expression of apoptosis-related proteins and thus promotes the breast cancer cells (MCF-7) apoptosis via inhibition of PI3K/AKT signal transduction pathway.
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REPRODUCTION FERTILITY AND DEVELOPMENT
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2023
·Vol. 35
·期 14
·669-675
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IF 1.9
Min Liu,Yong-Jie Mi,Juan Dai
Context Aquaporin 7 (AQP7) is selectively expressed in decidualised endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) of mice surrounding the embryonic implantation sites. However, the roles of AQP7 and the underlying mechanism that regulates AQP7 expression in endometrial decidualisation after implantation are still unclear.Aims This study aimed to investigate the role of the PI3K-Akt pathway in regulating the expression of AQP7 in ESCs and decidualisation.Methods Primary ESCs of pregnant mice were isolated to establish in vitro decidualisation models. PI3K inhibitor LY294002 was added to the decidualisation models, then AQP7 expression, changes in decidualised ESC morphology and expression of decidualisation marker molecules were examined.Key results AQP7 knockdown reduced the proliferation and differentiation of ESCs with in vitro induced decidualisation. Furthermore, when the activity of PI3K was inhibited by LY294002, the expression of AQP7 in decidualised ESCs was decreased and both the proliferation and differentiation of ESCs were significantly reduced.Conclusions This indicates that AQP7 is a key molecule involved in endometrial decidualisation and the expression of AQP7 is upregulated through activation of the PI3K-Akt pathways, which promotes the proliferation and differentiation of the ESCs, thus affecting occurrence of decidualisation.Implications This study may provide a new biomarker for the diagnosis of infertility and a new drug target for the prevention and treatment of infertility.
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Food Bioscience
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2021
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IF 4.24
Yonglu Li,Yiru Zhang,Yaxuan Wang,Xin Yu,Ting Yu,Xiaodong Zheng,Qiang Chu
With high morbidity and mortality, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has become a challenge for humans, because its clinic chemotherapies still remain unsatisfactory. In this study, the leaf part of a traditional Chinese plant, Tetrastigma hemsleyanum (TL), was studied, and its main flavones compounds were extracted and purified (TLF), which were composed of 5-caffeoylquinic acid, 3-caffeoylquinic acid, 4-caffeoylquinic acid, quercetin-3-O-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside. To study the anti-NSCLC ability of TLF, in vitro and in vivo studies were done. TLF inhibited the proliferation and migration of A549 cells and caused mitochondrial dysfunction. TLF significantly suppressed the tumor weight and volume, and down-regulated Ki67, proliferation cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) productions. To determine the intrinsic mechanism, proteins alternations were measured in solid tumors, and results showed that TLF blocked the Akt/mTOR pathway, and thereby induced autophagy, triggering Bcl and Caspase-dependent pathways, resulting in A549 cells’ apoptosis. This study indicated that TLF is a potential candidate to be an anti-NSCLC drug, or a supplementary resource for chemotherapy.
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Bioengineered
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2021
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IF 3.269
Yingnan Dai,Yeping Chen,Guoqian Wei,Li Zha,Xueqi Li
Ivabradine (Iva), a heart rate reducing agent that specifically inhibits the pacemaker I(f) ionic current, has been demonstrated to be cardioprotective in many cardiovascular diseases. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved metabolic process that regulates cardiac homeostasis. This study is aimed to explore whether autophagy is functionally involved in the cardioprotective effect of Iva in a rat model of myocardial infarction (MI). We observed that Iva treatment (po, 10 mg/kg/day) showed significant recovery on the hemodynamics parameters in MI rats, including left ventricular systolic pressure, left ventricular end diastolic pressure, and maximal ascending/descending rate of left ventricular pressure. Also, Iva treatment dramatically decreased infarct size, inhibited myocardial apoptosis, and reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 in MI rats. Moreover, Iva treatment enhanced autophagy and inhibited PI3K/AKT/mTOR/p70S6K pathway in MI rats. Simultaneously, we observed that autophagy enhancer rapamycin (ip, 10 mg/kg/day) showed similar cardioprotective effects with Iva. Furthermore, we observed that addition of autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (ip, 10 mg/kg/day) counteracted the therapeutic effect of Iva, addressing that Iva attenuated post-MI cardiac injury by enhancing autophagy. In summary, these findings demonstrated that Iva attenuated MI in rats by enhancing autophagy, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR/p70S6K pathway might be involved in the process. Autophagy activation by Iva may be a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of MI.
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BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
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2020
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IF 2.985
Gen Liu,Bo-fang Zhang,Qi Hu,Xiao-pei Liu,Jing Chen
Syringic acid is an abundant phenolic acid compound that possesses anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-endotoxic properties. However, the research of pretreatment with syringic acid against myocardial ischemia reperfusion is still limited. Thus, our research revealed the protective effect of syringic acid in the rat model with myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury. Histological analysis was performed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). The myocardial systolic function was detected by echocardiographic. Myocardial infarct size was measured by Evans blue and 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) double staining. The apoptosis index was recorded by Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling staining (TUNEL). The contents of creatine kinase MB (CK-MB) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the serum were determined by a commercial kit. The expression of the PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β signaling pathway-related molecules and apoptosis-associated indicators was detected by western blotting or real-time PCR. We found that pretreatment with syringic acid obviously increased the myocardial systolic function (LVEF and LVFS) and decreased the infarct size, the apoptosis index as well as the serum level of CK-MB and LDH. Meanwhile, syringic acid also remarkably augmented the contents of p-PI3K, p-Akt, p-GSK-3β, Bcl-2 and mitochondria cytochrome c . However, the expression of caspase-3, -9 and Bax significantly reduced. Interestingly, co-treatment with PI3K inhibitor of LY294002 counteracted those effects induced by syringic acid. In conclusion, pretreatment with syringic acid can mitigate myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury by inhibiting mitochondria-induced apoptosis which is regulated by the PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β signaling pathway .
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NEUROCHEMICAL RESEARCH
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2020
·Vol. 45
·期 12
·2926-2938
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IF 3.038
Tian Jun,Yang Lei,Wang Pengfei,Yang Lijun,Fan Zhenzeng
With millions of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients every year, TBI is regarded as one of the leading causes of human death and disability. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been domenstrated to be a potential therapeutic target for TBI. However, the detailed effect and underlying mechanism of CGRP on the injured brain after TBI has hardly been investigated. In this work, we established TBI models of mice and injected CGRP before and after modelling to study its effects on the brain lesion, neurological functions and behaviours, neuron apoptosis and autophagy after TBI. Impacts of introduced CGRP on the activation of Akt/mTOR signalling in the cortical tissues surrounding injured areas after TBI were also evaluated. It was found that CGRP was reduced after TBI, and gradually restored over time. CGRP administration significantly restored the brain lesion induced by TBI. The permeability of blood–brain barrier and brain edema was increased dramatically after TBI, which was ameliorated by exogenous CGRP. Moreover, several neurological behaviour tests were performed, showing that CGRP introduction also relieved the cognitive abilities of mice which were impaired after TBI. Enhancing apoptosis and autophagy of neurons in the cortical tissues of injury sites following TBI were also alleviated by CGRP administration. Besides, CGRP-treated brain cortical tissues showed increased activation of Akt/mTOR signalling after TBI. Therefore, the results suggest that exogenous CGRP plays a neuroprotective role in the injuryed brain after TBI, to relieve cell apoptosis and autophagy, at least partially through Akt/mTOR signalling pathway. This finding also provides more evidence for the treatment of TBI through introducing exogenous CGRP or its related drugs.
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Bio-Design and Manufacturing
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2020
·Vol. 4
·期 1
·72-86
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IF 4.095
Xing Zheng,Zhao Chen,Zhang Chunchen,Fan Yubo,Liu Haifeng
For the surgical treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD), there is a clear and unmet need in developing small-diameter (diameter < 6 mm) vascular grafts. In our previous work, sulfated silk fibroin (SF) was successfully fabricated as a potential candidate for preparing vascular grafts due to the great cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility. However, vascular graft with single layer is difficult to adapt to the complex internal environment. In this work, polycaprolactone (PCL) and sulfated SF were used to fabricate bilayer vascular graft (BLVG) to mimic the structure of natural blood vessels. To enhance the biological activity of BLVG, nicorandil (NIC), an FDA-approved drug with multi-bioactivity, was loaded in the BLVG to fabricate NIC-loaded BLVG. The morphology, chemical composition and mechanical properties of NIC-loaded BLVG were assessed. The results showed that the bilayer structure of NIC-loaded BLVG endowed the graft with a biphasic drug release behavior. The in vitro studies indicated that NIC-loaded BLVG could significantly increase the proliferation, migration and antioxidation capability of endothelial cells (ECs). Moreover, we found that the potential biological mechanism was the activation of PI3K/AKT/eNOS signaling pathway. Overall, the results effectively demonstrated that NIC-loaded BLVG had a promising in vitro performance as a functional small-diameter vascular graft.
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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
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2020
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IF 3.263
Ying Liu,ShiJi Deng,Zhi Zhang,Yue Gu,ShengNan Xia,XinYu Bao,Xiang Cao,Yun Xu
Neuroinflammation is critical for the pathogenesis of ischemia brain damage . Over-activated microglia-mediated inflammation plays a very important role in ischemia cerebral injuries. 6-Gingerol, obtained from edible ginger (Zingiber Officinale) exhibits protective effects against inflammation. In this study, we found that 6-Gingerol could reduce the size of infarction (P = 0.0184) and improve neurological functions (P = 0.04) at the third day after ischemic brain injury in vivo. Since 6-Gingerol has the anti-inflammatory effects, we further investigated its impacts on neuroinflammation mediated by microglia both in vivo and in vitro. We found that the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β, P = 0.0213), Interleukin-6 (IL-6, P = 0.0316), and inducible NO synthase (iNOS, P = 0.0229) in the infarct penumbra were lower in 6-Gingerol treated groups. Furthermore, microglia induced pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-1β, incremental intercellular nitric oxide (NO), as well as iNOS were blocked by the treatment of 6-Gingerol in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated microglia. In terms of mechanism, 6-Gingerol potently suppressed phosphorylation of serine-threonine protein kinase (Akt) - mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) - signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in LPS-treated microglia. Taken together, the present study suggested that 6-Gingerol improved cerebral ischemia injury by suppressing microglia-mediated neuroinflammation by down-regulating Akt-mTOR-STAT3 pathway.
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JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
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2020
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IF 9.038
Lanqiao Wang,Lanxi Wang,Xu Shi,Shiwen Xu
Excessive chlorpyrifos (CPF) in the environment causes toxicity to nontarget organisms by triggering oxidative stress. Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) plays an important role in controlling apoptosis and necrosis by negatively regulating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/threonine kinase (PI3K/AKT) pathway. However, the effects of different concentrations of CPF on grass fish liver cell injury and the role of the ROS/PTEN/PI3K/AKT axis remain poorly understood. In this study, L8824 cells treated with different concentrations of CPF (0, 40, 60, or 80 μM) were used as the research object. The results showed that the median inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 112.226 μM. As the CPF concentrations increased, the ROS and MDA levels increased, and the T-AOC levels and SOD/GPx/GST activities decreased. As PTEN expression increased, PI3K/AKT, BCL-2, and Caspase-8 expression dramatically decreased. Conversely, RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL and Bax/Cyt-c/Caspase-3 expression increased. Additionally, necroptosis increased in a dose-dependent manner, while apoptosis first increased and then decreased. In conclusion, our study showed that CPF could trigger oxidative stress and induce apoptosis and necroptosis in fish liver cells by regulating the ROS/PTEN/PI3K/AKT axis, and the type of damage induced was dose-dependent. These results are meaningful for toxicological studies of CPF and efforts to protect the ecosystem.
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Journal of Functional Foods
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2020
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IF 3.701
ShiFa Ruan,ShiJian Xiang,WenFeng Wu,SiWei Cao,QunQun Du,ZhuXian Wang,TingTing Chen,Qun Shen,Li Liu,HuoJi Chen,LiDong Weng,HongXia Zhu,Qiang Liu
We applied a label-free proteomic method to explore the mechanisms of Licorice flavonoid anti-acne effects in rat. Acne model was established in the back of rats as model group (MDL), then treated with licorice flavonoid (LCF), while none treated rats as control groups (CTR). In MDL, 314 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) and 27 significantly differentially expressed proteins (SDEPs) were identified compared to what was identified in CTR. While in LCF, 359 DEPs and 15 SDEPs were identified in comparison to MDL. Bioinformatics analysis showed that pathways related to metabolism, tight junction, PI3K-Akt signaling, focal adhesion, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, and leukocyte transendothelial migration were activated. The results of proteomics data were validated by qRT-PCR and western blot. Transdermal administration of LCF may exert anti-acne effects by inhibiting PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and mitochondrial activity. Hence, our results elucidated the underlying mechanisms of LCF anti-acne effect.
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TOXICOLOGY
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2020
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IF 4.099
Xueli Lv,Yaolu Zhu,Yingguang Deng,Shichang Zhang,Qing Zhang,Boxin Zhao,Guofeng Li
Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most effective and irreplaceable chemotherapeutic agents but its clinical use is limited due to its cardiotoxicity. Glycyrrhizin(GL) has been applied to liver disorders for long. However, little is known that if GL could be meaningful in attenuating cardiotoxicity. The aim of this study is to investigate the cardioprotective effects of GL in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity (DIC) and the underlying mechanism. Here, H9c2 cardiomyoblasts, Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs), and Rats were introduced as test models. A single dose of 20 mg/kg DOX (i.p.) was applied to induce acute cardiotoxicity in vivo, as reflected by growth inhibition, increased levels of AST and CK-MB, and reduction of SOD activity, while GL (25 or 50 mg/kg/d, 14 d, i.p.) could counteract these effects. Moreover, pre-incubation with GL (0.8 mM for 12 h) in H9c2 cells protected against DOX-induced cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Besides, Western blot analysis showed that DOX upregulated the expression of LC3 II and p62 whereas GL reversed that both in vitro and in vivo and improved the obstructed autophagy flux in DOX-treated H9c2 cells with an autophagy inhibitor Bafilomycin A1 (Baf A1, 50 nM, 2 h). It has been previously documented that High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) was involved in DIC. In our work, knockdown of HMGB1 significantly increased cell viability and LC3 II level in H9c2, suggesting HMGB1 was crucial in DOX-induced autophagy-triggering cell death. Intriguingly, GL is a direct inhibitor of HMGB1. We found that GL downregulated Akt/mTOR autophagy signaling pathway in DOX-treated H9c2 cells. More importantly, in non-silencing H9c2 cells (transfected with negative control siRNA) cells, the expression of phospho-Akt, phospho-mTOR, p62, and LC3 II was significantly decreased with GL pretreament compared to DOX alone. However, in H9c2/HMGB1 － (transfected with HMGB1 siRNA) cells exposed to DOX, the expression of p-Akt, p-mTOR, p62, LC3 II had no statistical difference with or without GL, revealing that HMGB1 mediated the cardioprotective action of GL in DIC. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that improved autophagy flux via HMGB1-dependent Akt/mTOR signaling pathway might contribute to attenuate DIC and go a novel insight into the underlying mechanisms of GL’s cardioprotective action. GL could be a potential candidate for the prevention of DIC.
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International Journal of Biological Sciences
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2021
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IF 6.582
Deng-Pan Wu,Yan Zhou,Li-Xiang Hou,Xiao-Xiao Zhu,Wen Yi,Si-Man Yang,Tian-Yu Lin,Jin-Lan Huang,Bei Zhang,Xiao-Xing Yin
Tamoxifen (TAM) resistance has indicated a significant challenge during endocrine therapy for hormone-sensitive breast cancer. Thus, it is significant to elucidate the molecular events endowing TAM resistance to endocrine therapy. In this study, we found that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was an important event to confer TAM resistance, and attenuating EMT by elevating connexin (Cx) 43 expression could reverse TAM resistance. Specifically, Cx43 overexpression improved TAM sensitivity, while Cx43 depletion facilitated TAM insensitivity by modulating EMT in T47D TAM-resistant and -sensitive cells, and transplanted xenografts. Importantly, we found a novel reciprocal regulation between Cx43 and c-Src/PI3K/Akt pathway contributing to EMT and TAM resistance in breast cancer. Moreover, we identified that Cx43 deficiency was significantly correlated with poor relapse-free survival in patients undergoing TAM treatment. Therefore, Cx43 represents a prognostic marker and an attractive target for breast cancer treatments. Therapeutic strategies designed to increase or maintain Cx43 function may be beneficial to overcome TAM resistance.
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