Effect of a Low-Protein Diet Supplemented with Ketoacids on Skeletal Muscle Atrophy and Autophagy in Rats with Type 2 Diabetic Nephropathy

A low-protein diet supplemented with ketoacids maintains nutritional status in patients with diabetic nephropathy. The activation of autophagy has been shown in the skeletal muscle of diabetic and uremic rats. This study aimed to determine whether a low-protein diet supplemented with ketoacids improves muscle atrophy and decreases the increased autophagy observed in rats with type 2 diabetic nephropathy. In this study, 24-week-old Goto-Kakizaki male rats were randomly divided into groups that received either a normal protein diet (NPD group), a low-protein diet (LPD group) or a low-protein diet supplemented with ketoacids (LPD+KA group) for 24 weeks. Age- and weight-matched Wistar rats served as control animals and received a normal protein diet (control group). We found that protein restriction attenuated proteinuria and decreased blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine levels. Compared with the NPD and LPD groups, the LPD+KA group showed a delay in body weight loss, an attenuation in soleus muscle mass loss and a decrease of the mean cross-sectional area of soleus muscle fibers. The mRNA and protein expression of autophagy-related genes, such as Beclin-1, LC3B, Bnip3, p62 and Cathepsin L, were increased in the soleus muscle of GK rats fed with NPD compared to Wistar rats. Importantly, LPD resulted in a slight reduction in the expression of autophagy-related genes; however, these differences were not statistically significant. In addition, LPD+KA abolished the upregulation of autophagy-related gene expression. Furthermore, the activation of autophagy in the NPD and LPD groups was confirmed by the appearance of autophagosomes or autolysosomes using electron microscopy, when compared with the Control and LPD+KA groups. Our results showed that LPD+KA abolished the activation of autophagy in skeletal muscle and decreased muscle loss in rats with type 2 diabetic nephropathy.     

FLZ Alleviates the Memory Deficits in Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease via Decreasing Beta-Amyloid Production and Tau Hyperphosphorylation

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide and mainly characterized by the aggregated β-amyloid (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau. FLZ is a novel synthetic derivative of natural squamosamide and has been proved to improve memory deficits in dementia animal models. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms of FLZ’s neuroprotective effect in APP/PS1 double transgenic mice and SH-SY5Y (APPwt/swe) cells. The results showed that treatment with FLZ significantly improved the memory deficits of APP/PS1 transgenic mice and decreased apoptosis of SH-SY5Y (APPwt/swe) cells. FLZ markedly attenuated Aβ accumulation and tau phosphorylation both in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistic study showed that FLZ interfered APP processing, i.e., FLZ decreased β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) phosphorylation, APP-carboxy-terminal fragment (APP-CTF) production and β-amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) expression. These results indicated that FLZ reduced Aβ production through inhibiting amyloidogenic pathway. The mechanistic study about FLZ’s inhibitory effect on tau phosphorylation revealed t the involvement of Akt/glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) pathway. FLZ treatment increased Akt activity and inhibited GSK3β activity both in vivo and in vitro. The inhibitory effect of FLZ on GSK3β activity and tau phosphorylation was suppressed by inhibiting Akt activity, indicating that Akt/GSK3β pathway might be the possible mechanism involved in the inhibitory effect of FLZ on tau hyperphosphorylation. These results suggested FLZ might be a potential anti-AD drug as it not only reduced Aβ production via inhibition amyloidogenic APP processing pathway, but also attenuated tau hyperphosphoylation mediated by Akt/GSK3β.     

Ser84是spindlin1定位与功能发挥的关键位点

spindlin1为作者所在研究组克隆并命名的肿瘤相关新基因,之前研究表明spindlin1蛋白定位于细胞核,并有可能通过对TCF-4通路的调节参与对肿瘤细胞生长和周期的调控．为进一步探索spindlin1的作用机制,明确spindlin1结构与功能的关系,在生物信息学分析及晶体结构解析的基础上,构建系列突变表达载体,首先以spindlin1蛋白亚细胞定位为指标,观察野生型及系列突变体spindlin1蛋白的亚细胞定位,并进一步检测野生型及突变体spindlin1对TCF-4荧光素酶报告基因转录活性的调控作用,以明确spindlin1定位与功能的关键位点．结果表明：Ser14＋Ser84、Ser84＋Ser99、Ser14＋Ser84＋Ser99位点Ser到Ala的联合突变能使野生型融合蛋白在细胞核内集中分布的特性消失,成为全细胞弥散分布,而Ser14、Ser84、Ser99各位点的单独突变或Ser14＋Ser99联合突变对spindlin1蛋白的细胞核内分布没有影响．与此同时,对TCF-4荧光素酶报告基因活性的分析表明,Ser14＋Ser84、Ser84＋Ser99、Ser14＋Ser84＋Ser99的联合突变使spindlin1对其活性的激活作用消失或降低．上述结果表明,Ser84是spindlin1细胞定位与功能发挥的关键位点,其作用发挥需要Ser14与Ser99的协助．     

Revealing mechanism of Caulis Sargentodoxae for the treatment of ulcerative colitis based on network pharmacology approach

Objective: The traditional Chinese medicine Caulis Sargentodoxae is widely used in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC), but the mechanism remains unknown. The present study aims to reveal its effective components, targets and pathways through network pharmacology and bioinformatics approaches.Materials and methods: Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) was used to identify effective components. The ligand-based targets prediction was achieved through SwissTargetPrediction and TargetNet. UC-related targets were identified using Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data and DisGeNET. The common targets of disease and components were constructed and analyzed by PPI network. Lastly, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses are used to explain the functions of these common targets. Components-Targets-Pathways network was visualized and analyzed to further reveal the connection between the components and targets.Results: Eight active components and 102 key targets were identified to play an important role in UC. These targets were related to regulation of protein serine/threonine kinase activity, positive regulation of cell motility, response to molecule of bacterial origin, response to toxic substance, ERK1 and ERK2 cascade, peptidyl-tyrosine modification, inositol lipid-mediated signaling, cellular response to drug, regulation of inflammatory response and leukocyte migration. Moreover, HIF-1 signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway were the key targets involved in UC-related signaling pathways.Conclusion: The eight active components of Caulis Sargentodoxae mainly play a therapeutic role for UC through synergistic regulation of HIF-1 signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway.     

Enhanced production of a novel cytotoxic chromone oxalicumone A by marine-derived mutant Penicillium oxalicum SCSIO 24–2

Many marine natural products hold great potential for the development of new and much needed drugs. However, the production of active metabolites by marine-derived microorganisms is usually very low, and large-scale culture has to be involved to meet the need of chemical structural modification and deep pharmacy study. In order to enhance the production of a novel cytotoxic sulfur-containing chromone oxalicumone A (OA), germinating spores of a marine-derived wild strain Penicillium oxalicum SCSGAF 0023 were mutated by microwave and ultraviolet light irradiation, which led to the obtainment of a mutant P. oxalicum SCSIO 24–2 that could produce fivefold increase in OA production (3.42?±?0.21 mg/l) as compared to the wild strain. This is the first report that germinating spores are applied in marine-derived Penicillium sp. mutating to enhance the production of OA. Further, Plackett–Burman design and central composite design were adopted to optimize the basic medium components for increasing OA production by the mutant SCSIO 24–2 in shake flasks. The results indicated that three medium components including mannitol, maltose, and l-cysteine had significant effects on OA production, and their concentrations were optimized as 36, 27.9, and 0.99 g/l, respectively. In the optimized medium, the OA production (18.31?±?0.27 mg/l) by mutant SCSIO 24–2 was 4.4-fold higher than that in the basic medium. These results of this work promise to improve the present production of OA and may be adopted to enhance other objective products' production by marine-derived fungi.     

Overexpression of the persimmon abscisic acid β‐glucosidase gene (DkBG1) alters fruit ripening in transgenic tomato

β‐Glucosidases (BG) are present in many plant tissues. Among these, abscisic acid (ABA) β‐glucosidases are thought to take part in the adjustment of cellular ABA levels, however the role of ABA‐BG in fruits is still unclear. In this study, through RNA‐seq analysis of persimmon fruit, 10 full‐length DkBG genes were isolated and were all found to be expressed. In particular, DkBG1 was highly expressed in persimmon fruits with a maximum expression 95 days after full bloom (DAFD). We verified that, in vitro, DkBG1 protein can hydrolyze ABA‐glucose ester (ABA‐GE) to release free ABA. Compared with wild‐type, tomato plants that overexpressed DkBG1 significantly upregulated the expression of ABA receptor PYL3/7 genes and showed typical symptoms of ABA hypersensitivity in fruits. DkBG1 overexpression (DkBG1‐OE) accelerated fruit ripening onset by 3–4 days by increasing ABA levels at the pre‐breaker stage and induced early ethylene release compared with wild‐type fruits. DkBG1‐OE altered the expression of ripening regulator NON‐RIPENING (NOR) and its target genes; this in turn altered fruit quality traits such as coloration. Our results demonstrated that DkBG1 plays an important role in fruit ripening and quality by adjusting ABA levels via hydrolysis of ABA‐GE.     

利拉鲁肽下调游离脂肪酸作用下βTC3 细胞PERK 的表达

目的:探讨游离脂肪酸(FFA)作用下胰岛βTC3细胞双链RNA依赖性蛋白样内质网激酶(PERK)的表达以及利拉鲁肽(Lira)对其表达的干预作用。方法:以βTC3细胞为研究对象,分为对照组和FFA组(0.125,0.25,0.5及1 mmol/L)孵育24 h,Westernblot方法检测PERK的表达。然后,分为对照组,FFA组,和FFA+Lira组(0.5 mg/L和1 mg/L),Lira预孵育6 h后,1 mmol/L FFA继续孵育24 h,Western blot检测PERK的表达。结果:①不同浓度FFA孵育24 h后,与对照组相比,1 mmol/L FFA组PERK表达增加(P<0.05)。②与1 mmol/L FFA组相比,0.5mg/L Lira+1 mmol/L FFA和1 mg/L Lira+1 mmol/L FFA组PERK表达减少(P<0.05),两组之间有统计学差异(P<0.05)。结论:FFA作用能够上调βTC3细胞PERK的表达,而Lira在一定程度上逆转FFA水平异常导致的βTC3细胞PERK表达上调,减轻内质网应激反应。