Cushing's syndrome caused by giant Ewing's sarcoma of the kidney: A case report and review of literature.

BACKGROUND: Primary renal Ewing's sarcoma (ES) is extremely rare, and only two cases causing Cushing's syndrome (CS) have been reported to date. We report that the case of an 18-year-old patient is diagnosed primary renal ES with typical CS characterized by purple stripes, weight gain, and hypertension. CASE SUMMARY: CS was first diagnosed by laboratory testing. A huge tumor was revealed in the kidney following an imaging examination. Moreover, brain and bone metastases were observed. After comprehensive treatment, primarily based on surgery, primary renal ES was pathologically diagnosed with a typical EWSR1-FLI1 genetic mutation through genetic testing. Furthermore, the glucocorticoid level returned to normal. By the ninth postoperative month of follow-up, the patient was recovering well. Cushing-related symptoms had improved, and a satisfactory curative effect was achieved. CONCLUSION: Primary renal ES, a rare adult malignant tumor, can cause CS and a poor prognosis.

Antioxidant potential and protective effect of modified sea cucumber peptides against H2O2-induced oxidative damage in vitro HepG2 cells and in vivo zebrafish model.

In this study, modified sea Cucumber Peptides (SCP) were prepared by reacting with xylooligosaccharide (XOS) and alginate oligosaccharides (AOS) via glycation. Free radical inhibitory and inhibition of oxidative stress of modified SCP was evaluated using human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells and zebrafish embryos. LC-MS analysis revealed that SCPs mainly consist of 40 active peptides, with an average molecular weight of 1122.168 Da and an average length of 11 amino acid residues. For amino acid composition, L-Asparagine, L-Methionine, and L-Aspartic Acid were dominant amino acids in SCP. The result showed that the antioxidant ability of SCP against 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), superoxide anion radical (O-2), and Hydroxyl Radical (OH) was significantly improved after modification. In HepG2 cells, the modified SCP showed stronger protection than native SCP native against H2O2-induced oxidative stress by enhancing cell viability and reducing radical oxygen species (ROS) generation. The inhibition effect of SCP was increased after modification with XOS and AOS by 13 % and 19 % respectively. Further studies displayed that the activity of antioxidative enzymes, including Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx), and catalase (CAT), was remarkably enhanced, whereas malondialdehyde (MDA) level was reduced compared with native SCP and H2O2-treated groups, thus, improving the intracellular antioxidant defenses. The gene expression analysis showed that the mechanism underlying the modified SCP protective effect may be linked with the capability to regulate Nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) gene expression. The protective effect of modified SCP against H2O2 in vitro was confirmed in vivo by reduced toxicity in zebrafish embryos via improvement of mortality rate, hatching rate, heart beating rate, and deformities of the zebrafish model. However, SCPAOS conjugate displayed greater antioxidant potentials compared to the SCPXOS, the different effects between SCPAOS and SCPXOS could be due to their different antioxidant activity. Thus, modified SCP could be potentially used as a novel nutraceutical in the preparation of anti-aging food and medicine.

Exploration of hypoglycemic peptides from porcine collagen based on network pharmacology and molecular docking.

In recent years, the extraction of hypoglycemic peptides from food proteins has gained increasing attention. Neuropeptides, hormone peptides, antimicrobial peptides, immune peptides, antioxidant peptides, hypoglycemic peptides and antihypertensive peptides have become research hotspots. In this study, bioinformatic methods were used to screen and predict the properties of pig collagen-derived hypoglycemic peptides, and their inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase were determined in vitro. Two peptides (RL and NWYR) were found to exhibit good water solubility, adequate ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, and toxicity) properties, potentially high biological activity, and non-toxic. After synthesizing these peptides, NWYR showed the best inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase with IC50 = 0.200±0.040 mg/mL, and it can regulate a variety of biological processes, play a variety of molecular functions in different cellular components, and play a hypoglycemic role by participating in diabetic cardiomyopathy and IL-17 signaling pathway. Molecular docking results showed that NWYR had the best binding effect with the core target DPP4 (4n8d), with binding energy of -8.8 kcal/mol. NWYR mainly bonded with the target protein through hydrogen bonding, and bound with various amino acid residues such as Asp-729, Gln-731, Leu-765, etc., thus affecting the role of the target in each pathway. It is the best core target for adjuvant treatment of T2DM. In short, NWYR has the potential to reduce type 2 diabetes, providing a basis for further research or food applications as well as improved utilization of pig by-products. However, in subsequent studies, it is necessary to further verify the hypoglycemic ability of porcine collagen active peptide (NWYR), and explore the hypoglycemic mechanism of NWYR from multiple perspectives such as key target genes, protein expression levels and differences in metabolites in animal models of hyperglycemia, which will provide further theoretical support for its improvement in the treatment of T2DM.