Protectin DX promotes epithelial injury repair and inhibits fibroproliferation partly via ALX/PI3K signalling pathway.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome/acute lung injury (ARDS/ALI) is histologically characterized by extensive alveolar barrier disruption and excessive fibroproliferation responses. Protectin DX (PDX) displays anti-inflammatory and potent inflammation pro-resolving actions. We sought to investigate whether PDX attenuates LPS (lipopolysaccharide)-induced lung injury via modulating epithelial cell injury repair, apoptosis and fibroblasts activation. In vivo, PDX was administered intraperitoneally (IP) with 200 ng/per mouse after intratracheal injection of LPS, which remarkedly stimulated proliferation of type II alveolar epithelial cells (AT II cells), reduced the apoptosis of AT II cells, which attenuated lung injury induced by LPS. Moreover, primary type II alveolar cells were isolated and cultured to assess the effects of PDX on wound repair, apoptosis, proliferation and transdifferentiation in vitro. We also investigated the effects of PDX on primary rat lung fibroblast proliferation and myofibroblast differentiation. Our result suggests PDX promotes primary AT II cells wound closure by inducing the proliferation of AT II cells and reducing the apoptosis of AT II cells induced by LPS, and promotes AT II cells transdifferentiation. Furthermore, PDX inhibits transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1 ) induced fibroproliferation, fibroblast collagen production and myofibroblast transformation. Furthermore, the effects of PDX on epithelial wound healing and proliferation, fibroblast proliferation and activation partly via the ALX/ PI3K signalling pathway. These data present identify a new mechanism of PDX which targets the airway epithelial cell and fibroproliferation are potential for treatment of ARDS/ALI.

Lipoxin A4 ameliorates lipopolysaccharide-induced lung injury through stimulating epithelial proliferation, reducing epithelial cell apoptosis and inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by alveolar epithelial disruption. Lipoxins (LXs), as so-called "braking signals" of inflammation, are the first mediators identified to have dual anti-inflammatory and inflammatory pro-resolving properties. METHODS: In vivo, lipoxinA4 was administrated intraperitoneally with 1 µg/per mouse after intra-tracheal LPS administration (10 mg/kg). Apoptosis, proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of AT II cells were measured by immunofluorescence. In vitro, primary human alveolar type II cells were used to model the effects of lipoxin A4 upon proliferation, apoptosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. RESULTS: In vivo, lipoxin A4 markedly promoted alveolar epithelial type II cells (AT II cells) proliferation, inhibited AT II cells apoptosis, reduced cleaved caspase-3 expression and epithelial-mesenchymal transition, with the outcome of attenuated LPS-induced lung injury. In vitro, lipoxin A4 increased primary human alveolar epithelial type II cells (AT II cells) proliferation and reduced LPS induced AT II cells apoptosis. LipoxinA4 also inhibited epithelial mesenchymal transition in response to TGF-ß1, which was lipoxin receptor dependent. In addition, Smad3 inhibitor (Sis3) and PI3K inhibitor (LY294002) treatment abolished the inhibitory effects of lipoxinA4 on the epithelial mesenchymal transition of primary human AT II cells. Lipoxin A4 significantly downregulated the expressions of p-AKT and p-Smad stimulated by TGF-ß1 in primary human AT II cells. CONCLUSION: LipoxinA4 attenuates lung injury via stimulating epithelial cell proliferation, reducing epithelial cell apoptosis and inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of water-soluble derivatives of chiral gossypol as HIV fusion inhibitors targeting gp41.

A series of novel or known water-soluble derivatives of chiral gossypol were synthesized and screened in vitro for their anti-HIV-1 activity. (-)-gossypol derivative was more active against HIV-1 than the corresponding (+)-gossypol derivative, respectively. Among these derivatives, d-glucosamine derivative of (-)-gossypol, oligopeptide derivative of (-)-gossypol and taurine derivative of (-)-gossypol, such as compounds 1a, 3a and 14a, showed significant inhibitory activities against HIV-1 replication, HIV-1 mediated cell-cell fusion and HIV gp41 6-helix bundle formation as some amino acid derivatives of (-)-gossypol.

Maresin1 stimulates alveolar fluid clearance through the alveolar epithelial sodium channel Na,K-ATPase via the ALX/PI3K/Nedd4-2 pathway.

Maresin1 (MaR1) is a new docosahexaenoic acid-derived pro-resolving agent that promotes the resolution of inflammation. In this study, we sought to investigate the effect and underlining mechanisms of MaR1 in modulating alveolar fluid clearance (AFC) on LPS-induced acute lung injury. MaR1 was injected intravenously or administered by instillation (200 ng/kg) 8 h after LPS (14 mg/kg) administration and AFC was measured in live rats. In primary rat alveolar type II epithelial cells, MaR1 (100 nM) was added to the culture medium with lipopolysaccharide for 6 h. MaR1 markedly stimulated AFC in LPS-induced lung injury, with the outcome of decreased pulmonary edema and lung injury. In addition, rat lung tissue protein was isolated after intervention, and we found MaR1 improved epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), Na,K-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) protein expression and Na,K-ATPase activity. MaR1 down-regulated Nedd4-2 protein expression though PI3k/Akt but not though PI3k/SGK1 pathway in vivo. In primary rat alveolar type II epithelial cells stimulated with LPS, MaR1-upregulated ENaC and Na,K-ATPase protein abundance in the plasma membrane. Finally, the lipoxin A4 Receptor inhibitor (BOC-2) and PI3K inhibitor (LY294002) not only blocked MaR1's effects on cAMP/cGMP, the expression of phosphorylated Akt and Nedd4-2, but also inhibited the effect of MaR1 on AFC in vivo. In conclusion, MaR1 stimulates AFC through a mechanism partly dependent on alveolar epithelial ENaC and Na,K-ATPase activation via the ALX/PI3K/Nedd4-2 signaling pathway. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism for pulmonary edema fluid reabsorption and MaR1 may provide a new therapy for the resolution of ALI/ARDS.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of small molecular polyphenols as entry inhibitors against H(5)N(1).

To find novel compounds against H5N1, three series of known or novel small molecular polyphenols were synthesized and tested in vitro for anti-H5N1 activity. In addition, the preliminary structure-antiviral activity relationships were elaborated. The results showed that some small molecular polyphenols had better anti-H5N1 activity, and could serve as novel virus entry inhibitors against H5N1, likely targeting to HA2 protein. Noticeably, compound 4a showed the strongest activity against H5N1 among these compounds, and the molecular modeling analysis also suggested that this compound might target to HA2 protein. Therefore, compound 4a is well qualified to serve as a lead compound or scaffold for the further development of H5N1 entry inhibitor.

Incidence and associated risk factors of antituberculosis drug-induced hepatotoxicity among hospitalised patients in Wuhan, China.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the incidence and risk factors of hepatotoxicity induced by antituberculosis (anti-TB) drugs in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, and to provide evidence for clinical prevention and treatment of anti-TB drug damage. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of patients who received first-line anti-TB drugs from January 2016 to December 2018 in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University was conducted. Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression analysis with the forward stepwise method were used to assess the risk factors associated with hepatotoxicity induced by anti-TB drugs. RESULTS: Of the 1603 patients treated with anti-TB drugs, only 1115 patients met the inclusion criteria and 42 subjects developed anti-TB drug-induced hepatotoxicity (ATDH). Significant differences (p<0.05) were seen in age (p=0.042), hypertension (p=0.021), treatment duration (p=0.000) and therapeutic regimen (p=0.001) between the non-ATDH and ATDH groups. Regression analysis further indicated that treatment duration (OR 1.053, 95% CI 1.031 to 1.076, p=0.000) and therapeutic regimens such as isoniazid (H), rifampicin (R), pyrazinamide (Z) and streptomycin (S) (HRZS) (OR 5.751, 95% CI 2.318 to 14.267, p=0.000), HRZ (OR 3.546, 95% CI 1.449 to 8.676, p=0.006) and RZ (OR 12.243, 95% CI 1.181 to 126.862, p=0.036) were risk factors for ATDH. CONCLUSION: The incidence of ATDH in this study was 3.77%, which was lower than that of other hospital-based studies. Treatment duration and therapeutic regimen might be potential risk factors for ATDH during anti-TB therapy in hospital. Among these therapeutic combination regimens, HRZS, HRZ and RZ could significantly increase the occurrence of ATDH when used as anti-TB therapy, while isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol (HRE) might be safer.