Red blood cell β-adrenergic receptors contribute to diet-induced energy expenditure by increasing O2 supply.

Diet-induced obesity (DIO) represents the major cause for the current obesity epidemic, but the mechanism underlying DIO is unclear. β-Adrenergic receptors (β-ARs) play a major role in sympathetic nervous system-mediated (SNS-mediated) diet-induced energy expenditure (EE). Rbc express abundant β-ARs; however, a potential role for rbc in DIO remains untested.

Atorvastatin alters the expression of genes related to bile acid metabolism and circadian clock in livers of mice.

Aim: Atorvastatin is a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor used for hyperlipidemia. Atorvastatin is generally safe but may induce cholestasis. The present study aimed to examine the effects of atorvastatin on hepatic gene expression related to bile acid metabolism and homeostasis, as well as the expression of circadian clock genes in livers of mice.

Effectively enhancing cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of alpha-momorcharin by integrating a heparin-binding peptide.

Alpha-momorcharin (α-MMC), a type I ribosome-inactivating protein, has attracted a great deal of attention because of its antitumor activity. However, the cytotoxicity of α-MMC is limited due to insufficient cellular internalization in cancer cells. To enhance the cytotoxicity of α-MMC, a heparin-binding domain derived from heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (named heparin-binding peptide [HBP]) was used as a cell-penetrating peptide and fused to the C-terminus of α-MMC.

DJ-1 promotes development of DEN-induced hepatocellular carcinoma and proliferation of liver cancer cells.

Chronic liver inflammation and injuries play a critical role in development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Parkinson disease (autosomal recessive, early onset) 7, encoding PARK7 protein (also called DJ-1), plays important roles in many carcinogenesis processes and is essential in modulating inflammation. However, whether DJ-1 is involved in HCC development remains largely unknown.

Deficiency of DJ-1 Ameliorates Liver Fibrosis through Inhibition of Hepatic ROS Production and Inflammation.

Liver fibrosis is a global health problem and previous studies have demonstrated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play important roles in fibrogenesis. Parkinson disease (autosomal recessive, early onset) 7 () also called DJ-1 has an essential role in modulating cellular ROS levels. DJ-1 therefore may play functions in liver fibrogenesis and modulation of DJ-1 may be a promising therapeutic approach.

The heparin-binding domain of HB-EGF as an efficient cell-penetrating peptide for drug delivery.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been shown to be potential drug carriers for cancer therapy. The inherently low immunogenicity and cytotoxicity of human-derived CPPs make them more suitable for intracellular drug delivery compared to other delivery vehicles. In this work, the protein transduction ability of a novel CPP (termed HBP) derived from the heparin-binding domain of HB-EGF was evaluated.

DJ-1 deficiency attenuates expansion of liver progenitor cells through modulating the inflammatory and fibrogenic niches.

Our previous study suggested that DJ-1 has a critical role in initiating an inflammatory response, but its role in the liver progenitor cell (LPC) expansion, a process highly dependent on the inflammatory niche, remains elusive. The objective of this study is to determine the role of DJ-1 in LPC expansion. The correlation of DJ-1 expression with LPC markers was examined in the liver of patients with hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus (HBV and HCV, respectively) infection, primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), respectively.

Hemoporfin Photodynamic Therapy for Port-Wine Stain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background And Objectives: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has shown potentially beneficial results in treating port-wine stain, but its benefit-risk profile remains undefined. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PDT conducted with hemoporfin and a 532 nm continuous wave laser to treat port-wine stain clinically.

Patients And Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in eight hospitals in China.

Exploration of the Peptide Recognition of an Amiloride-sensitive FMRFamide Peptide-gated Sodium Channel.

FMRFamide (Phe-Met-Arg-Phe-NH2)-activated sodium channel (FaNaC) is an amiloride-sensitive sodium channel activated by endogenous tetrapeptide in invertebrates, and belongs to the epithelial sodium channel/degenerin (ENaC/DEG) superfamily. The ENaC/DEG superfamily differs markedly in its means of activation, such as spontaneously opening or gating by mechanical stimuli or tissue acidosis. Recently, it has been observed that a number of ENaC/DEG channels can be activated by small molecules or peptides, indicating that the ligand-gating may be an important feature of this superfamily.

A Highly Conserved Salt Bridge Stabilizes the Kinked Conformation of β2,3-Sheet Essential for Channel Function of P2X4 Receptors.

Significant progress has been made in understanding the roles of crucial residues/motifs in the channel function of P2X receptors during the pre-structure era. The recent structural determination of P2X receptors allows us to reevaluate the role of those residues/motifs. Residues Arg-309 and Asp-85 (rat P2X4 numbering) are highly conserved throughout the P2X family and were involved in loss-of-function polymorphism in human P2X receptors.

Cyclic helix B peptide inhibits ischemia reperfusion-induced renal fibrosis via the PI3K/Akt/FoxO3a pathway.

Renal fibrosis is a main cause of end-stage renal disease. Clinically, there is no beneficial treatment that can effectively reverse the progressive loss of renal function. We recently synthesized a novel proteolysis-resistant cyclic helix B peptide (CHBP) that exhibits promising renoprotective effects.

Recombinant expression and purification of a MAP30-cell penetrating peptide fusion protein with higher anti-tumor bioactivity.

MAP30 (Momordica Antiviral Protein 30 Kd), a single-stranded type-I ribosome inactivating protein, possesses versatile biological activities including anti-tumor abilities. However, the low efficiency penetrating into tumor cells hampers the tumoricidal effect of MAP30. This paper describes MAP30 fused with a human-derived cell penetrating peptide HBD which overcome the low uptake efficiency by tumor cells and exhibits higher anti-tumor bioactivity.

Relative motions between left flipper and dorsal fin domains favour P2X4 receptor activation.

Channel gating in response to extracellular ATP is a fundamental process for the physiological functions of P2X receptors. Here we identify coordinated allosteric changes in the left flipper (LF) and dorsal fin (DF) domains that couple ATP-binding to channel gating. Engineered disulphide crosslinking or zinc bridges between the LF and DF domains that constrain their relative motions significantly influence channel gating of P2X4 receptors, confirming the essential role of these allosteric changes.

Objective Auscultation of TCM Based on Wavelet Packet Fractal Dimension and Support Vector Machine.

This study was conducted to illustrate that auscultation features based on the fractal dimension combined with wavelet packet transform (WPT) were conducive to the identification the pattern of syndromes of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The WPT and the fractal dimension were employed to extract features of auscultation signals of 137 patients with lung Qi-deficient pattern, 49 patients with lung Yin-deficient pattern, and 43 healthy subjects. With these features, the classification model was constructed based on multiclass support vector machine (SVM).

Inherent dynamics of head domain correlates with ATP-recognition of P2X4 receptors: insights gained from molecular simulations.

P2X receptors are ATP-gated ion channels involved in many physiological functions, and determination of ATP-recognition (AR) of P2X receptors will promote the development of new therapeutic agents for pain, inflammation, bladder dysfunction and osteoporosis. Recent crystal structures of the zebrafish P2X4 (zfP2X4) receptor reveal a large ATP-binding pocket (ABP) located at the subunit interface of zfP2X4 receptors, which is occupied by a conspicuous cluster of basic residues to recognize triphosphate moiety of ATP. Using the engineered affinity labeling and molecular modeling, at least three sites (S1, S2 and S3) within ABP have been identified that are able to recognize the adenine ring of ATP, implying the existence of at least three distinct AR modes in ABP.

Refractive change in the adult rabbit eye after corneal relaxation with the femtosecond laser.

Background: A new procedure to correct myopia that does not disturb the cornea in the optical zone and avoids injuring the corneal epithelium could be a key advance in corneal refractive surgery. The aim of this study is to observe the refractive change in the adult rabbits undergoing femtosecond laser-assisted multilayer intrastromal ablation in the mid-periphery of the cornea without injury of epithelium.

Method: The right eyes of 8 New Zealand White adult rabbits were used for the experiments.

Synthesis of low-molecular weight protein (LMWP) lysozyme-curcumin conjugates for kidney drug targeting.

The low-molecular weight protein (LMWP) lysozyme is a suitable drug carrier for renal drug targeting. Presented herein is a lysozyme-curcumin renal drug delivery system that possesses the potential to achieve a highly effective yet less toxic therapy. Briefly, the approach involves synthesis of the lysozyme-drug (curcumin) conjugates by coupling the drug to the activated functional groups on lysozyme via hydrolyzable ester linkages.

Cytotoxicity of 9,11-dehydroergosterol peroxide isolated from Ganoderma lucidum and its target-related proteins.

The cytotoxicty of 9,11-dehydroergosterol peroxide (DHEP) isolated from the fruiting bodies of Ganoderma lucidum on HeLa cells was studied. DHEP treatment for 48 h inhibited the proliferation of HeLa human cervical carcinoma cells with an IC50-value of 8.58 +/- 0.

Pharmacokinetics and its relation to toxicity of pegylated-liposomal doxorubicin in Chinese patients with breast tumours.

Objectives: Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is a formulation of doxorubicin encapsulated with polyethylene glycol-coated liposomes, which has prolonged circulation time and unique toxicity profile. This study deals with the pharmacokinetics and its relation to toxicity in Chinese patients with breast tumours.

Methods: Twenty-two Chinese female patients with breast tumours were received two PLD products in single dose of 50 mg/m2 with a randomized, two-period and cross-over design.

[Syndrome identification of CCl4 induced liver fibrosis model rats based on syndrome detecting from recipe used].

Objective: To further demonstrate the cognition upon the prominent effect of Yiguanjian and Xiayuxue Decoction on the CCI4 induced rat model of chronic liver fibrosis which have been verified in the previous studies. From the viewpoint of detecting TCM syndrome by recipe used, through this cognition the pathological features of the liver injury model manifesting a syndrome of "Gan-yin deficiency with blood stasis obstructing collaterals" were further explored.

Methods: Wistar rats were randomly divided into the normal group, the model group, and the three medicated groups.

[Study on specific distribution of afferent fibers in trigeminal sensory root of the rat].

Objective: To study the distribution character of the trigeminal sensory afferent fibers in rat's trigeminal sensory root (RxV) and to explore the possibility of selectively injury of the pain afferent fibers.

Methods: The retrograde tracer fluorogold (FG) was injected into trigeminal spinal subnucleus and pontine nucleus respectively. After 7 days survival, the rats were sacrificed and the RxV was removed and sectioned.