Uridine and its role in metabolic diseases, tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Uridine is a pyrimidine nucleoside found in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid with a concentration higher than the other nucleosides. As a simple metabolite, uridine plays a pivotal role in various biological processes. In addition to nucleic acid synthesis, uridine is critical to glycogen synthesis through the formation of uridine diphosphate glucose in which promotes the production of UDP-GlcNAc in the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway and supplies UDP-GlcNAc for O-GlcNAcylation.

PhyB-dependent phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade MKK2-MPK2 positively regulates red light-induced stomatal opening.

Red light induces stomatal opening by affecting photosynthesis, metabolism and triggering signal transductions in guard cells. Phytochrome B (phyB) plays a positive role in mediating red light-induced stomatal opening. However, phyB-mediated red light guard cell signalling is poorly understood.

Uridine Inhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Development by Inducing Ferroptosis.

Uridine is a key metabolite used as a substrate for the production of DNA, RNA, and glucose, and it is mainly synthesized in the liver. Currently, it is not known whether uridine levels are altered in the tumor microenvironment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and whether uridine can be a target for tumor therapy. In this study, the detection of genes associated with de novo uridine synthesis, carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamylase, dihydroorotase (CAD) (n = 115), and dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) (n = 115) in HCC tissues through tissue microarrays revealed that the expression of CAD and DHODH was higher in tumor compared with paraneoplastic tissues.

Newly established LC-MS/MS method for measurement of plasma BH4 as a predictive biomarker for kidney injury in diabetes.

Objective: The clinical research on BH4 is limited because of the difficulties on its measurement. In this study, we used our own established LC-MS/MS method to examine the plasma BH4 levels in diabetes to determine whether it could be used as a biomarker for the prediction of kidney injury in those patients.

Methods: Hospitalized diabetes patients in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from Jan to Aug 2021 were recruited.

Vitamin D retards intervertebral disc degeneration through inactivation of the NF-κB pathway in mice.

To determine the efficacy and specific mechanism of vitamin D on intervertebral disc degeneration. The model of intervertebral disc degeneration was established in 3-month-old mice. Furthermore, the levels of intervertebral disc degeneration in the vitamin D group and the control group were detected one month later by X-ray, Western boltting, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) et al.