RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) ranks second in the incidence of urogenital system tumors, and the treatment of BUC needs to be improved. Puerarin, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been shown to have various effects such as anti-cancer effects, the promotion of angiogenesis, and anti-inflammation. This study investigates the effects of puerarin on BUC and its molecular mechanisms. METHODS: Through GeneChip experiments, we obtained differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and analyzed these DEGs using the Ingenuity® Pathway Analysis (IPA®), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) pathway enrichment analyses. The Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK8) assay was used to verify the inhibitory effect of puerarin on the proliferation of BUC T24 cells. String combined with Cytoscape® was used to create the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network, and the MCC algorithm in cytoHubba plugin was used to screen key genes. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA®) was used to verify the correlation between key genes and cell proliferation. RESULTS: A total of 1617 DEGs were obtained by GeneChip. Based on the DEGs, the IPA® and pathway enrichment analysis showed they were mainly enriched in cancer cell proliferation and migration. CCK8 experiments proved that puerarin inhibited the proliferation of BUC T24 cells, and its IC50 at 48 hours was 218µmol/L. Through PPI and related algorithms, 7 key genes were obtained: ITGA1, LAMA3, LAMB3, LAMA4, PAK2, DMD, and UTRN. GSEA showed that these key genes were highly correlated with BUC cell proliferation. Survival curves showed that ITGA1 upregulation was associated with poor prognosis of BUC patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the potential antitumor activity of puerarin in BUC. To the best of our knowledge, bioinformatics investigation suggests that puerarin demonstrates anticancer mechanisms via the upregulation of ITGA1, LAMA3 and 4, LAMB3, PAK2, DMD, and UTRN, all of which are involved in the proliferation and migration of bladder urothelial cancer cells.
RESUMEN
Multimodal synergistic bactericidal agents display great potential for fighting biofilm infections. However, the rational design of biofilm microenvironment (BME)-activatable therapeutic agents with excellent specificities, effective eradications and minimal side effects remains a great challenge. Herein, we show a BME-responsive one-for-all bactericidal nanoplatform consisting of Fe3+-doped polydopamine (Fe/PDA)-capped ZnO nanoparticles with a successive assembly of methylene blue (MB) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). In an acidic BME (pH 5.5), the constructed nanoagent (ZnPMp) can realize the co-delivery of dual metal ions (Zn2+ and Fe3+) and MB, and the latter shows an activated photodynamic antibacterial activity when irradiated with 635 nm laser. Zn2+ produced from acid-sensitive dissolution of ZnO is an effective chemical antibacterial agent. Additionally, the released Fe3+ is reduced to Fe2+ by glutathione (GSH) overexpressed in the BME to generate Fe2+/Fe3+ redox couples, which exhibit Fenton catalytic activity to convert endogenous H2O2 to hydroxyl radicals (ËOH) for chemodynamic sterilization and GSH depletion ability to improve ËOH-induced oxidative damage. Interestingly, the hyperthermia caused by the Fe/PDA layer assisted with 808 nm laser can damage directly bacterial cells, accelerate the release of Zn2+, Fe3+and MB, and promote the catalytic activity of Fe2+/Fe3+ redox couples for photothermal-augmented multimodal antibiofilm therapy. With the help of dual lasers, ZnPMp displays the broad-spectrum antibacterial effect, inhibits effectively the formation of biofilms, and more importantly eliminates bacteria deep in mature biofilms. In addition, ZnPMp can be used to treat biofilm-related infections in vivo with excellent therapeutic performance and minimal toxicity. Overall, the developed ZnPMp may serve as a potential nano-antibacterial agent for intensive anti-infective therapy.