Loureirin A Promotes Cell Differentiation and Suppresses Migration and Invasion of Melanoma Cells via WNT and AKT/mTOR Signaling Pathways.

Resina Draconis is a traditional Chinese medicine, with the in-depth research, its medicinal value in anti-tumor has been revealed. Loureirin A is extracted from Resina Draconis, however, research on the anti-tumor efficacy of Loureirin A is rare. Herein, we investigated the function of Loureirin A in melanoma. Our research demonstrated that Loureirin A inhibited the proliferation of and caused G0/G1 cell cycle arrest in melanoma cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Further study showed that the melanin content and tyrosinase activity was enhanced after Loureirin A treatment, demonstrated that Loureirin A promoted melanoma cell differentiation, which was accompanied with the reduce of WNT signaling pathway. Meanwhile, we found that Loureirin A suppressed the migration and invasion of melanoma cells through the protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Taken together, this study demonstrated for the first time the anti-tumor effects of Loureirin A in melanoma cells, which provided a novel therapeutic strategy against melanoma.

Shen-Qi-Jiang-Tang granule ameliorates diabetic nephropathy via modulating tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Shen-Qi-Jiang-Tang granule (SQJTG), a classic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription, has been widely used in clinical for diabetes, especially type Ⅱ diabetes. Previous anti-diabetic studies stumbled across that SQJTG has a potential kidney protective effect on diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the protective mechanism of SQJTG on DN still needs to be explored. AIM OF THE STUDY: The purpose of the present study was to explore the therapeutic effect of SQJTG on DN through both bioinformatics analysis and in vivo experiments. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The TCMIP database was used for screening potential compounds and targets of SQJTG, and the GeneCards, OMIM, DrugBank, and TTD databases were used for collecting DN-related genes. Then protein-protein interaction analysis for the common targets of SQJTG and DN was performed by the STRING database. Meanwhile, KEGG and GO were carried out using the Metascape and DAVID databases. In vivo experiments, to testify the potential kidney protective effects of SQJTG, STZ-induced DN mice with different dosages of SQJTG treatment were collected and the renal tissues were detected by H&E, PAS, Masson and TUNEL staining. Immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting were used to assess the proteins' expressions. Flow cytometry and ELISA assay were used to detect the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. RESULTS: Among the 338 compounds ascertained by SQJTG, there were 789 related targets as well. Moreover, 1,221 DN-related targets were predicted and 20 core targets were screened by the PPI analyses. According to GO and KEGG pathway analysis, SQJTG may affect DN via the TNF pathway. For the in vivo experiments, renal histomorphological examinations demonstrated that SQJTG treatment significantly ameliorated STZ-induced kidney damage and had a dosage dependence. Meanwhile, mice with DN were found to have dramatic increases in IL-1, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-12, but markedly decreased after administration of SQJTG. In addition, the protein levels of TNF signaling molecules, like p-P65, p-JNK, and p-p38, showed significantly elevated in kidney tissues of DN mice and attenuated after SQJTG treatment. CONCLUSIONS: SQJTG exerts a kidney protective effect in DN mice via modulating TNF signaling pathways, and it has promising applications for the treatment of DN.

[Characteristics of Organic Phosphorus Fractions in the Sediments of the Black Water Aggregation in Lake Taihu].

Potential release of phosphorus in lake sediments depends largely on the fractions and distribution of organic phosphorus. MaoDu was chosen as the research area in the west of Lake Taihu. The chemical forms of the surface sediments were investigated by the Ivannoff extraction methods. The results showed that the main organic phosphorus form of sediments at different sampling places was humic acid-OP. It accounted for 35% of the total organic phosphorus. Horizontal distribution: Total organic phosphorus content from the shore to the middle of total showed a trend of rising after decline; vertical distribution: Total organic phosphorus content was the lowest in 2-6 cm and the highest in 4-8 cm. Various phosphorus content followed the order of humic acid-OP > residual-OP > HCl-OP > fulvic acid-OP; the relative content of NaHCO3-OP in the total organic phosphorus content showed a trend of rising followed by reduction and then rising again from the shore to the middle, cyanobacteria residue deposition increased the content of NaHCO3-OP in sediment. Contents of NaHCO3-OP and humic acid-OP both first reduced, then increased and finally reduced in the vertical distribution, the content of NaHCO3-OP was the lowest in 4-6 cm and humic acid-OP was the highest in 4-8 cm. HCl-OP and fulvic-OP decreased with increasing depth in the vertical distribution. The content of residual-OP showed stable tendency in the vertical direction and was about 45 µg·g-1. Labile OP and pH, DO, the depth of water were significantly negatively correlated, OM and NaOH-Pi were significantly correlated with total organic phosphorus, labile OP, moderately labile OP and nonlabile OP. Three components of organic phosphorus had bio-availability and played an important role in lake eutrophication. The increase of the content of labile OP might promote the black water aggregation (BWA) in cyanobacteria accumulation.