Revealing the antimicrobial potential of traditional Chinese medicine through text mining and molecular computation.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), with its extensive knowledge base documented in ancient texts, offers a unique resource for contemporary drug discovery, particularly in combatting microbial infections. The success of antimalarial drugs like artemisinin and artesunate, derived from the TCM herb Artemisia annua L., exemplifies the potential of TCM-derived small molecules.

L. Extract Inhibits Colorectal Cancer Tumor Growth by Modulating Cell Apoptosis and Autophagy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common cancer globally, and chemotherapy often causes severe complications, necessitating effective drugs with minimal side effects. As L. extract (ACE) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine that contains numerous active compounds with anticancer effects, in this study, the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was used to determine ACE's effect on CRC cell lines, revealing that it significantly inhibits CoLo320DM and HCT116 cells.

AI-assisted literature exploration of innovative Chinese medicine formulas.

Our study provides an innovative approach to exploring herbal formulas that contribute to the promotion of sustainability and biodiversity conservation. We employ data mining, integrating keyword extraction, association rules, and LSTM-based generative models to analyze classical Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) texts. We systematically decode classical Chinese medical literature, conduct statistical analyses, and link these historical texts with modern pharmacogenomic references to explore potential alternatives.

An integrated analysis of dysregulated SCD1 in human cancers and functional verification of miR-181a-5p/SCD1 axis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), one of the most lethal cancers, has become a global health issue. Stearoyl-coA desaturase 1 (SCD1) has been demonstrated to play a crucial role in human cancers. However, pan-cancer analysis has revealed little evidence to date.

Leptin Silencing Attenuates Lipid Accumulation through Sterol Regulatory Element-Binding Protein 1 Inhibition in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Leptin is a crucial regulator of metabolism and energy homeostasis in mammals. Many studies have investigated the impacts of leptin on human cancers, such as proliferation and metastasis. However, the mechanisms underlying leptin-mediated regulation of lipid metabolism in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remain incompletely understood.

DRP1 contributes to head and neck cancer progression and induces glycolysis through modulated FOXM1/MMP12 axis.

Abnormal DRP1 expression has been identified in a variety of human cancers. However, the prognostic potential and mechanistic role of DRP1 in head and neck cancer (HNC) are currently poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated a significant upregulation of DRP1 in HNC tissues, and that DRP1 expression correlates with poor survival of HNC patients.

IL-6/p-BTK/p-ERK signaling mediates calcium phosphate-induced pruritus.

Uremic pruritus with elevated levels of calcium phosphate (CaP) in skin is a common symptom in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this study, we demonstrate that intradermal injection of CaP into mice triggered scratching by up-regulating the IL-6 in skin and phosphorylation of ERKs in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in a dose-dependent manner. IL-6 is essential because the CaP-induced up-regulation of phosphorylated (p)-ERK in DRG was considerably reduced in the IL-6 knockout mice.

ELF-1 expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma facilitates proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells via modulation of CCL2/CCR2 signaling.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a prevalent malignant tumor in Southeast Asia. The management of NPC has remained a challenge until now. ELF-1 is a member of the ETS family of transcription factors that regulate genes involved in cellular growth.

Designed phosphate-methylated oligonucleotides as PCR primers for SNP discrimination.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a powerful technique for the detection and quantification of nucleic acids and has enormous applications to research in molecular biology. Certain inherited diseases, caused by single nucleotide mutations, however, are difficult to identify by PCR, using DNA primers and probes, in a situation where a false diagnosis may lead to incorrect or delayed treatment. With the aim of enhancing the specificity of PCR, we used novel chemically synthesized oligonucleotides containing site-specific methyl phosphotriester (MPTE) inter-nucleoside linkage(s) as primers and probes.

Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Novel Genes Associated with Cartilage Degeneration in Posttraumatic Osteoarthritis Progression.

Objective: The current therapeutic strategy for posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) focuses on early intervention to attenuate disease progression, preserve joint function, and defer joint replacement timing. Sequential transcriptomic changes of articular cartilage in a rat model were investigated to explore the molecular mechanism in early PTOA progression.

Design: Anterior cruciate ligament transection and medial meniscectomy (ACLT + MMx)-induced PTOA model was applied on male Wistar rats.

Metformin disrupts malignant behavior of oral squamous cell carcinoma via a novel signaling involving Late SV40 factor/Aurora-A.

Conventional therapeutic processes in patient with OSCC are associated with several unfavorable effects leading to patients with poor survival rate. Metformin has been shown to protect against a variety of specific diseases, including cancer. However, the precise roles and mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of metformin on OSCC remain elusive.

An in vivo molecular response analysis of colorectal cancer treated with Astragalus membranaceus extract.

The fact that many chemotherapeutic drugs cause chemoresistance and side effects during the course of colorectal cancer treatment necessitates development of novel cytotoxic agents aiming to attenuate new molecular targets. Here, we show that Astragalus membranaceus (Fischer) Bge. var.

Hylan G-F 20 attenuates posttraumatic osteoarthritis progression: Association with upregulated expression of the circardian gene NPAS2.

Aims: The study was to examine the effect of Hylan G-F 20 on the progression of posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) and the expression of the circadian genes neuronal PAS domain protein 2 (NPAS2) and period 2 (Per2).

Main Methods: We used the anterior cruciate ligament transaction and medial menisectomy (ACLT+MMx) model in Wistar rats. The rats were divided into three groups, the sham-operated group, the Hylan G-F 20-treated group, and the saline-treated group.

Suppression of Aurora-A-FLJ10540 signaling axis prohibits the malignant state of head and neck cancer.

Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a highly invasive cancer. Aurora-A has been reported for a number of malignancies. However, the identity of downstream effectors responsible for its aggressive phenotype in HNC remains underinvestigated.

Discovery of prognostic biomarkers for predicting lung cancer metastasis using microarray and survival data.

Background: Few studies have investigated prognostic biomarkers of distant metastases of lung cancer. One of the central difficulties in identifying biomarkers from microarray data is the availability of only a small number of samples, which results overtraining. Recently obtained evidence reveals that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells causes metastasis, which is detrimental to patients' survival.

Method designed to respect molecular heterogeneity can profoundly correct present data interpretations for genome-wide expression analysis.

Although genome-wide expression analysis has become a routine tool for gaining insight into molecular mechanisms, extraction of information remains a major challenge. It has been unclear why standard statistical methods, such as the t-test and ANOVA, often lead to low levels of reproducibility, how likely applying fold-change cutoffs to enhance reproducibility is to miss key signals, and how adversely using such methods has affected data interpretations. We broadly examined expression data to investigate the reproducibility problem and discovered that molecular heterogeneity, a biological property of genetically different samples, has been improperly handled by the statistical methods.

Methylosome protein 50 promotes androgen- and estrogen-independent tumorigenesis.

Methylosome protein 50 (MEP50) is a component of methylosome where MEP50 binds protein substrates and activates the oncogenic protein arginine methyl transferase 5 (PRMT5). MEP50 is also a coactivator for androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor (ER), and transforms cells in the presence of androgen or estrogen. To extend the understanding of how MEP50 transforms cells, we investigated whether MEP50 could transform cells independent of AR and ER, and clarified whether PRMT5 could contribute to the MEP50-caused tumor formation.

Chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effect of dietary supplementation of vitamin D on cholangiocarcinoma in a Chemical-Induced animal model.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is an aggressive cancer. Vitamin D, a pro-hormone, is getting popular due to its hormone-like functions after converted to its active form, 1α,25(OH)2D3. Here, we show that dietary supplementation with 6 IU/g of vitamin D greatly suppressed ICC initiation and progression without apparent toxicity in a chemically induced rat model.

Aurora-A signaling is activated in advanced stage of squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck cancer and requires osteopontin to stimulate invasive behavior.

The clinical significances, cellular effects, and molecular mechanisms by which Aurora-A mediate its invasive effects in HNSCC are still unclear. Here, we found that Aurora-A expression is significantly higher in tumor tissues on 14-microarray of HNSCC in Oncomine-databases. The activity of Aurora-A was not only found in HNSCC specimens, but also significantly correlated with advanced-T-classification, positive-N-classification, TNM-stage and the poor 5-year survival rate.

Oncogenic fibulin-5 promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell metastasis through the FLJ10540/AKT pathway and correlates with poor prognosis.

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is known for its high metastatic potential and locoregional recurrence, although the molecular alterations that are driving NPC metastasis remain unclear at this time. This study aimed to examine the expression of fibulin-5 in NPC, correlate the results with clinicopathological variables and survival, and to investigate the role of fibulin-5 in human NPC cell lines.

Material And Methods: Standard semi-quantitative-RT-PCR, quantitative-RT-PCR, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry were used to investigate the mRNA and protein expression profiles of fibulin-5 in normal and NPC tissues.

Graptopetalum paraguayense ameliorates chemical-induced rat hepatic fibrosis in vivo and inactivates stellate cells and Kupffer cells in vitro.

Background: Graptopetalum paraguayense (GP) is a folk herbal medicine with hepatoprotective effects that is used in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective and antifibrotic effects of GP on experimental hepatic fibrosis in both dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)- and carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced liver injury rats.

Methods: Hepatic fibrosis-induced rats were fed with the methanolic extract of GP (MGP) by oral administration every day.

MART-10, a New Generation of Vitamin D Analog, Is More Potent than 1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D(3) in Inhibiting Cell Proliferation and Inducing Apoptosis in ER+ MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells.

Hormone antagonist therapy for estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer patients post radical surgery and radiation therapy has a poor prognosis and also causes bone loss. 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1α,25(OH)(2)D(3)] is a potent antitumor agent in pre-clinical studies, but caused hypercalcemia when its effective antitumor doses were used. Therefore, we investigated the effects of a less-calcemic 1α,25(OH)(2)D(3) analog, 19-nor-2α-(3-hydroxypropyl)-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3 )(MART-10), on ER+MCF-7 cells.

Overexpression of Rap-1A indicates a poor prognosis for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma and promotes tumor cell invasion via Aurora-A modulation.

The functions of Rap-1A in oral carcinogenesis are largely unexplored. In this study, we examined the expression of Rap-1A at different malignant stages of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC). Semiquantitative RT-PCR, quantitative RT-PCR, and Western blotting were used to evaluate Rap-1A mRNA and protein expressions, respectively, in paired OCSCC patient specimens.