Effect of Jinhuang Fuzheng powder on cytokines of immunosuppressive mice with protein antibody micro-array / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of Jinhuang Fuzheng powder on cytokines of immunosuppressive mice by using protein antibody micro-array.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The immunosuppressive mice model was established by subcutaneously injecting cyclophosphamide. Rats were orally administered with low, middle and high dose of Huangjin Fuzheng powder for 10 days, and fasted for 12 hours after the final administration. 1 mL blood was drawn from caudal veins and isolated hearts of rats of each group. A quantitative test was conducted for cytokines with cytokine antibody array.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Compared with the control group, IFN-gamma and RANTES of the CTX group decreased significantly (P<0.05). After the administration, IFN-gamma of low, middle and high-dose groups, and RANTES of the high-dose group increased significantly (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, IL-5, IL-6, IL-9, IL-13 and MCP-1 of the CTX group increased remarkably (P<0.01, P<0.05). After the administration, IL-5, IL-6, IL-9, IL-13 and MCP-1 of low, middle and high-dose groups decreased to varying degrees. GM-CSF, IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, M-CSF, TNF-alpha, KC and VEGF of the 13 types of cytokines showed no significant change.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Jinhuang Fuzheng powder shows effect on 20 types of cytokines of immunosuppressive mice to varying degrees, which may be related to the regulatory immunosuppression of Th1/Th2 subgroup in mice.</p>

Study on correlated proteins in the urine of chronic renal failure patients of Chinese medicine damp syndrome based on SELDI-TOF-MS technique / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the protein markers in the urine of chronic renal failure (CRF) patients of Chinese medicine damp syndrome (CMDS) based on surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) technique.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The urine was sampled from 90 CRF patients of CMDS and 60 CRF patients of non-CMDS. Then the proteomics of the urine was studied by H4 gene chip. The chips were scanned and analyzed using PBS II (a protein chip reader).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) Totally 25 differential protein peaks were identified in the e/m range of 1 000-20 000 of the protein atlas of the two groups (P < 0.01). (2) The urine protein predictive model of CFR patients of CMDS was established after bioinformatic analysis. Totally 4 biomarkers consisting of M/Z 8 654.96, M/Z 2 081.65, M/Z 18 667.3, and M/Z 2 242.14 were obtained, which could better classify the samples of CMDS and those of non-CMDS. Its accuracy rate was 84.7%, the sensitivity was 92.2%, and the specificity was 73.3%. (3) Between the CMDS group and the non-CMDS group, 7 kinds of proteins in the urine were possibly identified by SwissProt Database.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>This study had primarily screened the protein markers in the urine of CRF patients of CMDS, and established the predictive model. The protein markers in the urine were identified by database, thus providing certain experimental evidence for clinical typing of CRF patients of CMDS.</p>

Chemical proteomics and discovery of drug targets / 药学学报

Medical community and pharmaceutical companies are currently facing a dire need for discovery and identification of new druggable targets. However, the discovery of small-molecule target is an important and arduous task for the biological and medical scientists. To overcome the bottlenecks for target validation, many new approaches are being developed, such as chemical proteomics. As a part of proteomics approaches, chemical proteomics employs small-molecule compounds that can specifically interact with the target protein to interfere with and detect proteomics. Therefore, new target identification, drug discovery and research on multi-target-directed drugs will all be benefited from the further advances in chemical proteomics approaches. Chemical proteomics has the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency of the drug discovery process.

Effects of Herba epimedii and Fructus ligustri lucidi on the transcription factors in hypothalamus of aged rats / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To comparatively analyze the difference in the expression of 54 transcription factors in the hypothalamus using protein chips following the medication of Chinese drugs for Shen-tonification, Herba Epimedii, and Fructus Ligustri lucidi (FL) to aged rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Wistar rats, aged 15 months of SPF grade, were randomized into three groups, three males and three females in each group. They were medicated with Herba Epimedii decoction (HED, 0.14 g/kg), Fructus Ligustri lucidi decoction (FLD, 0.12 g/kg), and distilled water, respectively, twice a day for 15 days. The rats were sacrificed at the morning of the 16th day 1 h after medication, and their hypothalamus was taken and made into homogenate under an ice-bath for detecting the expression of transcription factors with chip technique.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The expressions of signal transduction and transcription activation factor-6 (Stat-6) and androgen receptor (AR) were up-regulated, and those of pre-B transcription factor1 (Pbx-1), stat-1 and AP-2 were down-regulated in both HED and FLD treated groups, but these changes occurred mainly in female rats in the former while mainly in males in the latter.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Chinese drugs for Shen-tonification could impact the expression of transcription factors in the hypothalamus of aged rats, dominantly on the neuro-endocrine factors responsible for the growth and development. The effects of drugs for tonifying Shen-yang and for tonifying Shen-yin are different, which is probably one of the pharmacological mechanisms of the Shen-tonifying drugs.</p>

A study of APin-protein interactions using protein microarray / 대한치과보존학회지

Protein microarray or protein chips is potentially powerful tools for analysis of protein-protein interactions. APin cDNA was previously identified and cloned from a rat odontoblast cDNA library. The purpose of this study was to investigate the APin-protein interactions during ameloblast differentiation. Protein microarray was carried with recombinant APin protein and MEF2, Aurora kinase A, BMPR-IB and EF-hand calcium binding protein were selected among 74 interacting proteins. Immortalized ameloblast cells (ALCs) were transfected with pCMV-APin construct and U6-APin siRNA construct. After transfection, the expression of the mRNAs for four proteins selected by protein micoarrays were assessed by RT-PCR. The results were as follows: 1. APin expression was increased and decreased markedly after its over-expression and inactivation, respectively. 2. Over-expression of the APin in the ALCs markedly down-regulated the expression of MEF2 and Aurora kinase A, whereas their expression remained unchanged by its inactivation. 3. Expression of BMPR-IB and EF-hand calcium binding protein were markedly increased by the overexpression of the APin in the ALCs, whereas expression of BMPR-IB remained unchanged and expression of EF-hand calcium binding protein was markedly decreased by its inactivation. These results suggest that APin plays an important role in ameloblast differentiation and mineralization by regulating the expression of MEF2, Aurora kinase A, BMPR-IB and EF-hand calcium binding protein.

Effect of some active Chinese herbal fraction on brain tissue proteomic profile of ischemic mouse / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effect of some active Chinese herbal fraction on protein expression of brain tissue in ischemic mouse with proteomic technique.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ischemia-reperfusion mice were treated with baicalin, geniposide, cholic acid and concha margaritifera respectively for 3 hrs, and then their brain tissue were taken to extract the total protein. Protein expression in ischemic mouse brain was analyzed with surface-enhanced laser desorption/inionation-time of flight-mass spectra (SELDI-TOF-MS) protein-chip.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The four components tested had effect on 3 target proteins at 5373Da, 5707Da and 15103Da, showing the nature of multi-target and with different action on protein expression.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Protein-chip is an effective approach for exploring the pharmacological mechanism of Chinese herbal fraction.</p>

The Effect of Caffeine on 3T3-L1 Adipocyte Differentiation : A Nutrigenomical Approach

Nutrigenomics refers to research that investigates the interaction between nutrition and the human genome. Caffeine in tea and coffee is widely and routinely consumed by people. This study was performed to confirm the effect of caffeine treatment on the gene expression and cytokine profiling in 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells using microarray and protein array methodology. Treatment of caffeine in 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells increased expression of several genes related with obesity including adipocyte C1Q and collagen domain containing (ACDC), Adipsin (ADN), uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3), while glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), which is known as lipid storage enzyme, was decreased by caffeine treatment. Furthermore, cytokines, such as interleukin-3 (IL-3), interleukin-12 (IL-12), interleukin-13 (IL-13), granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF), granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), were decreased in caffeine treated 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells. These results provided interesting information about the genes related with caffeine and cytokine expression profiling in obesity.