Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of trinucleotide CAG repeat in the Huntingtin () gene. The major pathogenic pathways underlying HD involve the impairment of cellular energy homeostasis and DNA damage in the brain. The protein kinase ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) is an important regulator of the DNA damage response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing honokiol (HNK), a major anti-inflammatory bioactive compound in Magnolia officinalis, we show a potent therapeutic outcome against an accelerated, severe form of lupus nephritis (ASLN). The latter may follow infectious insults that act as environmental triggers in the patients. In the current study, an ASLN model in NZB/W F1 mice was treated with HNK by daily gavage after onset of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIgA nephropathy (IgAN), the most common primary glomerular disorder, has a relatively poor prognosis yet lacks a pathogenesis-based treatment. Compound K (CK) is a major absorbable intestinal bacterial metabolite of ginsenosides, which are bioactive components of ginseng. The present study revealed promising therapeutic effects of CK in two complementary IgAN models: a passively induced one developed by repeated injections of IgA immune complexes and a spontaneously occurring model of spontaneous grouped ddY mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChinese herbal medicines used in combination have long-term been shown to be mild remedies with "integrated effects." However, our study provides the first demonstration that M1, an active metabolite of ginsenoside, exerted its dramatic therapeutic effects on accelerated and severe lupus nephritis (ASLN) mice, featuring acute renal function impairment, heavy proteinuria, high serum levels of anti-dsDNA, and high-grade, diffuse proliferative renal lesions. In the present study, NZB/WF1 mice were given injections of lipopolysaccharide to induce the ASLN model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Renal tubulointerstitial lesions (TILs), a key pathological hallmark for chronic kidney disease to progress to end-stage renal disease, feature renal tubular atrophy, interstitial mononuclear leukocyte infiltration and fibrosis in the kidney. Our study tested the renoprotective and therapeutic effects of compound K (CK), as described in our US patent (US7932057B2), on renal TILs using a mouse unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) model.
Methods: Renal pathology was performed and renal draining lymph nodes were subjected to flow cytometry analysis.
The NLRP3 inflammasome is a caspase-1-containing multi-protein complex that controls the release of IL-1β and plays important roles in the development of inflammatory disease. Here, we report that resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound naturally produced by plants, inhibits NLRP3 inflammasome-derived IL-1β secretion and pyroptosis in macrophages. Resveratrol inhibits the activation step of the NLRP3 inflammasome by suppressing mitochondrial damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPseudomonas aeruginosa K187, a protease- and chitinase-producing bacterium, exhibited protease and chitinase activity after three and five days of incubation, respectively. The protease and chitinase were both produced by using 1% squid pen powder (SPP) (w/v) as sole carbon and nitrogen source. After fermentation, the deproteinization rate of the recovered squid pen gradually increased up to 68% on the fourth day.
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