Potential Nexus of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Insulin Resistance Between Hepatic and Peripheral Tissues.

The liver is the central metabolic organ and plays a pivotal role in regulating homeostasis of glucose and lipid metabolism. Aberrant liver metabolism promotes insulin resistance, which is reported to be a common characteristic of metabolic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There is a complex and bidirectional relationship between NAFLD and T2DM.

NAMPT inhibition synergizes with NQO1-targeting agents in inducing apoptotic cell death in non-small cell lung cancer cells.

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) catalyzes the first rate-limiting step in converting nicotinamide to NAD(+), essential for a number of enzymes and regulatory proteins involved in a variety of cellular processes, including deacetylation enzyme SIRT1 which modulates several tumor suppressors such as p53 and FOXO. Herein we report that NQO1 substrates Tanshione IIA (TSA) and β-lapachone (β-lap) induced a rapid depletion of NAD(+) pool but adaptively a significant upregulation of NAMPT. NAMPT inhibition by FK866 at a nontoxic dose significantly enhanced NQO1-targeting agent-induced apoptotic cell death.

The complete mitochondrial genomes of four cockroaches (Insecta: Blattodea) and phylogenetic analyses within cockroaches.

Three complete mitochondrial genomes of Blaberidae (Insecta: Blattodea) (Gromphadorhina portentosa, Panchlora nivea, Blaptica dubia) and one complete mt genome of Blattidae (Insecta: Blattodea) (Shelfordella lateralis) were sequenced to further understand the characteristics of cockroach mitogenomes and reconstruct the phylogenetic relationship of Blattodea. The gene order and orientation of these four cockroach genomes were similar to known cockroach mt genomes, and contained 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes and one control region. The mt genomes of Blattodea exhibited a characteristics of a high A+T composition (70.

Pharmacodynamics and potential synergistic effects of Mai-Luo-Ning injection on cardiovascular protection, based on molecular docking.

As a computer-assisted approach, molecular docking has been universally applied in drug research and development and plays an important role in the investigation and evaluation of herbal medicines. Herein, the method was used to estimate the pharmacodynamics of Mai-Luo-Ning injection, a traditional Chinese compound herbal prescription. Through investigating the interactions between several important proteins in cardiovascular system and characteristic components of the formula, its effect on cardiovascular protection was evaluated.