The Role of Oxidative Stress and Autophagy in Blue-Light-Induced Damage to the Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Zebrafish In Vitro and In Vivo.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the progressive degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), retina, and choriocapillaris among elderly individuals and is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Thus, a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms in retinal tissue activated by blue light exposure is important for developing novel treatment and intervention strategies. In this study, blue-light-emitting diodes with a wavelength of 440 nm were applied to RPE cells at a dose of 3.7 ± 0.75 mW/cm2 for 24 h. ARPE-19 cells were used to investigate the underlying mechanism induced by blue light exposure. A trypan blue exclusion assay was used for the cell viability determination. Flow cytometry was used for apoptosis rate detection and autophagy analysis. An immunofluorescence microscopy analysis was used to investigate cellular oxidative stress and DNA damage using DCFDA fluorescence staining and an anti-γH2AX antibody. Blue light exposure of zebrafish larvae was established to investigate the effect on retinal tissue development in vivo. To further demonstrate the comprehensive effect of blue light on ARPE-19 cells, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was performed for an ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) to reveal additional related mechanisms. The results showed that blue light exposure caused a decrease in cell proliferation and an increase in apoptosis in ARPE-19 cells in a time-dependent manner. Oxidative stress increased during the early stage of 2 h of exposure and activated DNA damage in ARPE-19 cells after 8 h. Furthermore, autophagy was activated in response to blue light exposure at 24-48 h. The zebrafish larvae model showed the unfavorable effect of blue light in prohibiting retinal tissue development. The RNA-Seq results confirmed that blue light induced cell death and participated in tissue growth inhibition and maturation. The current study reveals the mechanisms by which blue light induces cell death in a time-dependent manner. Moreover, both the in vivo and NGS data uncovered blue light's effect on retinal tissue development, suggesting that exposing children to blue light could be relatively dangerous. These results could benefit the development of preventive strategies utilizing herbal medicine-based treatments for eye diseases or degeneration in the future.

Induction of Autophagic Death of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells by Armillaridin from Armillaria mellea.

The honey mushroom, Armillaria mellea, is known to have medicinal qualities and has been used in recent years as a health food and dietary supplement worldwide. In Asia, it is commonly consumed as an herbal medicine, being a key component of the Chinese preparation "Tien-ma". Here, we examined the antitumor effects of armillaridin, a bioactive compound isolated from A. mellea, on human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Armillaridin inhibited the growth of human Huh7, HepG2, and HA22T HCC cells, and its cytotoxicity was confirmed by observations of its induction of mitochondrial transmembrane potential collapse. However, armillaridin treatment did not result in large numbers of cells with fragmented chromosomal DNA, suggesting that apoptosis was not responsible for these effects. We therefore tested for signs of autophagic cell death following armillaridin administration. Armillaridin induced LC3 aggregation in green fluorescent protein-LC3-overexpressing cells. Moreover, flow cytometry and immunoblotting revealed that it increased the number of acridine orange-positive cells and upregulated autophagy-related proteins, respectively. Furthermore, armillaridin cytotoxicity was suppressed by the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine. In summary, our results indicated that armillaridin induces HCC cell death by autophagy, and demonstrated the potential of armillaridin as an antihepatoma agent.

Induction of apoptosis by Armillaria mellea constituent armillarikin in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

Armillaria mellea is a honey mushroom often used in the traditional Chinese medicine "Tianma". Currently, this medicinal mushroom is also used as a dietary supplement in numerous Western and Eastern countries. Armillarikin was isolated from A. mellea, and we previously discovered that it induced cytotoxicity in human leukemia cells. In this study, we further investigated the cytotoxicity of armillarikin against liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer cells. Armillarikin was cytotoxic against human hepatocellular carcinoma Huh7, HA22T, and HepG2 cells based on the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium and alamarBlue(®) assays. Armillarikin treatment also induced the collapse of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential of these cells. Furthermore, armillarikin-induced apoptotic cell death was demonstrated by sub-G1 chromosomal DNA formation by using flow cytometry. In addition, the apoptosis was inhibited by the pan-caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-fmk. Immunoblotting also revealed the armillarikin-induced activation of procaspase-3, -8, and -9 and upregulation of the apoptosis- and cell cycle arrest-related phospho-histones 2 and 3, respectively. Moreover, reactive oxygen species scavengers also inhibited the armillarikin-induced apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma, suggesting that reactive oxygen species formation played an important role in the armillarikin-induced apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma. In conclusion, our study indicates the potential of armillarikin as an effective agent for hepatoma or leukemia therapies.

Dicentrine Analogue-Induced G2/M Arrest and Apoptosis through Inhibition of Topoisomerase II Activity in Human Cancer Cells.

Lindera megaphylla has been traditionally used as an antineoplastic and wound healing remedy. We previously demonstrated the antitumor effects of D-dicentrine, a natural aporphine alkaloid from the root of L. megaphylla. To generate analogues, series of phenanthrene alkaloids from D-dicentrine were synthesized by degradation with ethyl chloroformate in pyridine, base hydrolysis, and N-alkylation. In this study, we demonstrated that one of the synthesized D-dicentrine analogues (here after designated as analogue 1) exhibited more potent cytotoxic effects than D-dicentrine in colon adenocarcinoma, hepatoma, leukemia, and epidermoid carcinoma cells. We performed cell cycle and apoptotic analysis by flow cytometry, an apoptotic DNA detection ELISA assay, and topoisomerase II activity by the kinetoplast DNA concatenation assay for studying their cytotoxic mechanisms. We found that both D-dicentrine and analogue 1 induced apoptosis and G2/M arrest in HL-60 leukemia cells. The percentage of apoptotic cells induced by analogue 1 was 4.5-fold higher than that induced by D-dicentrine as evident from measuring the amount of histone-bound DNA fragments. Moreover, we found that analogue 1 was 28-fold more potent than D-dicentrine for inhibition of topoisomerase II activity by the kinetoplast DNA concatenation assay. Our findings indicate that D-dicentrine analogue 1 is very promising as a potential antitumor agent for future study.

Reactive oxygen species mediation of baizhu-induced apoptosis in human leukemia cells.

Baizhu (Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz) has traditionally been used as an important ingredient of several Chinese herbal medicines, which have been used for abdominal pain and gastroenterology diseases for thousands of years. Despite its popularity in herbal therapies, little is known about the anticancer effect of Baizhu. In this study, the anticancer potential of Baizhu on human hepatoma and leukemia cell lines was evaluated. Baizhu methanol extract induced apoptosis in human lymphoma Jurkat T cells, leukemia U937, and HL-60 cells. This was confirmed by several methods, including hypodiploid cells detection using flow cytometry, the examination of apoptotic bodies containing cells using confocal laser scanning microscopy, and hypodiploid cell population inhibition using the broad spectrum caspase inhibitor z-VAD. Finally, the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), especially hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and superoxide anion (O(2)(-)), were found to be elevated after treatment of these cells with Baizhu extracts. Antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) pretreatment almost completely inhibited Baizhu-induced apoptosis, suggesting that ROS are the key mediators for Baizhu-induced apoptosis. All these data indicate that Baizhu is a possible anti-tumor agent that induces apoptosis of human leukemia cells through ROS generation.