Engineered tumor microvesicles modified by SP94 peptide for arsenic trioxide targeting drug delivery in liver cancer therapy.

Liver cancer is among the leading cause of cancer related death worldwide. There is growing interest in using traditional Chinese medicines such as arsenic trioxide (ATO) to treat liver cancer. ATO have attracted attention due to its wide range of anti-cancer activities. However, the current ATO formulations are associated with drawbacks such as short half-life, lack of targeting ability towards solid tumors and apparent toxic side effects. Tumor microvesicles (TMVs) has shown encouraging results for the delivery of drugs to solid tumor. In this work, we designed ATO loaded TMVs further modified by SP94 peptide as liver cancer specific ligand (ATO@SP94-TMVs). This drug delivery system utilized SP94 peptide that selectively targets liver cancer cells while TMVs increase the accumulation of ATO at tumor site and activate immune response owing to the associated antigens. ATO@SP94-TMVs exhibited high encapsulation efficiency and tumor microenvironment triggered enhanced release of ATO in vitro. Cytotoxicity and uptake studies revealed remarkable inhibition and specific targeting of H22 cells. In addition, excellent immune response was detected in vitro, enhancing anti-tumor efficacy. Furthermore, a tumor inhibition rate of about 53.23 % was observed in H22 bearing tumor model. Overall, these results confirm that ATO@SP94-TMVs can be a promising nano drug delivery system for the future liver cancer therapy and improve its clinical applications.

A Muti-Substrate Flavonol O-glucosyltransferases from Safflower.

To explore the complete biosynthesis process of flavonoid glycosides in safflower, specifically the key glycosyltransferase that might be involved, as well as to develop an efficient biocatalyst to synthesize flavonoid glycosides, a glycosyltransferase CtUGT4, with flavonoid-O-glycosyltransferase activity, was identified in safflower. The fusion protein of CtUGT4 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, and the target protein was purified. The recombinant protein can catalyze quercetin to form quercetin-7-O-glucoside, and kaempferol to form kaempferol-3-O in vitro, and a series of flavones, flavonols, dihydroflavones, chalcones, and chalcone glycosides were used as substrates to generate new products. CtUGT4 was expressed in the tobacco transient expression system, and the enzyme activity results showed that it could catalyze kaempferol to kaempferol-3-O-glucoside, and quercetin to quercetin-3-O-glucoside. After overexpressing CtUGT4 in safflower, the content of quercetin-3-O-rutinoside in the safflower florets increased significantly, and the content of quercetin-3-O-glucoside also tended to increase, which preliminarily confirmed the function of CtUGT4 flavonoid-O-glycosyltransferase. This work demonstrated the flavonoid-O-glycosyltransferase function of safflower CtUGT4 and showed differences in the affinity for different flavonoid substrates and the regioselectivity of catalytic sites in safflower, both in vivo and in vitro, providing clues for further research regarding the function of UGT genes, as well as new ideas for the cultivation engineering of the directional improvement of effective metabolites in safflower.

Both Two CtACO3 Transcripts Promoting the Accumulation of the Flavonoid Profiles in Overexpressed Transgenic Safflower.

The unique flavonoids, quinochalcones, such as hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) and carthamin, in the floret of safflower showed an excellent pharmacological effect in treating cardiocerebral vascular disease, yet the regulating mechanisms governing the flavonoid biosynthesis are largely unknown. In this study, CtACO3, the key enzyme genes required for the ethylene signaling pathway, were found positively related to the flavonoid biosynthesis at different floret development periods in safflower and has two CtACO3 transcripts, CtACO3-1 and CtACO3-2, and the latter was a splice variant of CtACO3 that lacked 5' coding sequences. The functions and underlying probable mechanisms of the two transcripts have been explored. The quantitative PCR data showed that CtACO3-1 and CtACO3-2 were predominantly expressed in the floret and increased with floret development. Subcellular localization results indicated that CtACO3-1 was localized in the cytoplasm, whereas CtACO3-2 was localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Furthermore, the overexpression of CtACO3-1 or CtACO3-2 in transgenic safflower lines significantly increased the accumulation of quinochalcones and flavonols. The expression of the flavonoid pathway genes showed an upward trend, with CtCHS1, CtF3H1, CtFLS1, and CtDFR1 was considerably induced in the overexpression of CtACO3-1 or CtACO3-2 lines. An interesting phenomenon for CtACO3-2 protein suppressing the transcription of CtACO3-1 might be related to the nucleus location of CtACO3-2. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H), glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down, and BiFC experiments revealed that CtACO3-2 interacted with CtCSN5a. In addition, the interactions between CtCSN5a and CtCOI1, CtCOI1 and CtJAZ1, CtJAZ1 and CtbHLH3 were observed by Y2H and GST pull-down methods, respectively. The above results suggested that the CtACO3-2 promoting flavonoid accumulation might be attributed to the transcriptional activation of flavonoid biosynthesis genes by CtbHLH3, whereas the CtbHLH3 might be regulated through CtCSN5-CtCOI1-CtJAZ1 signal molecules. Our study provided a novel insight of CtACO3 affected the flavonoid biosynthesis in safflower.

Autophagy is involved in the neuroprotective effect of nicotiflorin.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Nicotiflorin is a flavonoid glycoside derived from the traditional Chinese medicine FlosCarthami, dried petals of Carthamus tinctorius L., and has been confirmed to be a promising novel drug candidate for ischemic stroke. Yet, the exact role of nicotiflorin in cerebral I/R injury is uncharacterized and the possible mechanisms have not been clearly expounded. AIM OF THE STUDY: The present study was designed to determine the effect of nicotiflorin on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and its relationship with autophagy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats and oxygen-glucose deprivation and reintroduction (OGD/R) in SH-SY5Y cells were established in in vivo and in vitro models, respectively. The severity of MCAO was assessed by brain infarct size, neurological scores and survival rate. The severity of OGD/R was evaluated by cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and cell apoptosis. The level of autophagy was evaluated both in vivo and in vitro. Autophagosomes were observed using transmission electron microscopy and autophagic flux was measured using mRFP-GFP-tandem fluorescent LC3 adenovirus. Autophagy-related proteins (LC3-II/I, SQSTM1, beclin-1, Phospho-mTOR/mTOR) were measured by immunoblot. Autophagy-related mRNA levels (Becn1, Atg7) were detected by Real-Time PCR. Inhibition of autophagy was implemented by 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) or chloroquine in vitro. RESULTS: In vivo, nicotiflorin treatment alleviated brain damage and neurological deficit while it dramatically increased 72 h survival rate in rats. In vitro, nicotiflorin treatment also ameliorated the severity of OGD/R. Moreover, nicotiflorin treatment increased ischemic penumbra autophagy (autophagosomes, BECN1, LC3-II/I ratio, SQSTM1, Phospho-mTOR/mTOR, Atg7). In vitro, nicotiflorin likewise enhanced autophagy and promoted autophagy flux. Furthermore, the blockade of autophagy by 3-MA or chloroquine disabled the efficacic of nicotiflorin in preventing cell damage upon OGD/R insult. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that autophagy plays a significant role in the protective effect of nicotiflorin against ischemic stroke.

Integrating molecular characterization and metabolites profile revealed CtCHI1's significant role in Carthamus tinctorius L.

BACKGROUND: As a traditional Chinese herb, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is valued for its florets to prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Basing on previous chemical analysis, the main active compounds are flavonoids in its florets. Although flavonoid biosynthetic pathway has been well-documented in many model species, unique biosynthetic pathway remains to be explored in safflower. Of note, as an important class of transitional enzymes, chalcone isomerase (CHI) has not been characterized in safflower. RESULTS: According to our previous research, CHIs were identified in a safflower transcriptome library built by our lab. To characterize CHI in safflower, a CHI gene named CtCHI1 was identified. A multiple sequences alignment and phylogenetic tree demonstrate that CtCHI1 shares 92% amino acid identity and close relationship with CHI to Saussurea medusa. Additionally, subcellular localization analysis indicated CtCHI1-GFP fusion protein was mainly in the cell nucleus. Further, we purified CtCHI1 protein from E. coli which can effectively catalyze isomerization of 2',4',4,6'-tetrahydroxychalcone into naringenin in vitro. Via genetic engineer technology, we successfully obtained transgenic tobacco and safflower lines. In transgenic tobacco, overexpression of CtCHI1 significantly inhibited main secondary metabolites accumulation, including quercetin (~ 79.63% for ovx-5 line) and anthocyanins (~ 64.55% for ovx-15 line). As shown in transgenic safflower, overexpression of CtCHI1 resulted in upstream genes CtPAL3 and CtC4H1 increasing dramatically (up to ~ 3.9fold) while Ct4CL3, CtF3H and CtDFR2 were inhibited. Also, comparing the whole metabolomics database by PCA and PLS-DA between transgenic and control group, 788 potential differential metabolites were marked and most of them displayed up-regulated trends. In parallel, some isolated secondary metabolites, such as hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA), rutin, kaempferol-3-O-ß-rutinoside and dihydrokaempferol, accumulated in transgenic safflower plants. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that CtCHI1 is an active, functional, catalytic protein. Moreover, CtCHI1 can negatively and competitively regulate anthocyanins and quercetin pathway branches in tobacco. By contrast, CtCHI1 can positively regulate flavonol and chalcone metabolic flow in safflower. This research provides some clues to understand CHI's differential biochemical functional characterization involving in flavonoid pathway. More molecular mechanisms of CHI remain to be explored in the near future.

CtACO1 Overexpression Resulted in the Alteration of the Flavonoids Profile of Safflower.

BACKGROUND: Flavonoids with various structures play a vital role in plant acclimatization to varying environments as well as in plant growth, development, and reproduction. Exogenous applications of ethylene and 1-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid (ACC), could affect the accumulation of flavonoids. Very few attempts have been made to investigate the effect of 1-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid oxidase (ACO), a unique enzyme that catalyzes ACC to ethylene, on genes and metabolites in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. In this study, two ACOs in safflower (CtACOs) were cloned, and then transgenic safflower with overexpressed CtACO1 was generated through the Agrobacterium-mediated floral dipping method. RESULTS: CtACO1 and CtACO2 were both characterized by the 2-oxoglutarate binding domain RxS and the ferrous iron binding site HxDxnH as ACOs from other plants. However, the transcript levels of CtACO1 in flowers at stages I, II, III, and IV were all higher than those of CtACO2. At the cellular level, by using electroporation transformation, CtACO1 was found to be localized at the cytomembrane in onion epidermal cells. CtACO1 overexpression had varying effects on genes involved in the ethylene and flavonoid biosynthetic pathways. The metabolites analysis showed that CtACO1 overexpression lines had a higher accumulation of quercetin and its glycosylated derivatives (quercetin 3-ß-d-glucoside and rutin). In contrast, the accumulation of quinochalcones (hydroxysafflor yellow A and carthamin), kaempferol glycosylated derivatives (kaempferol-3-O-ß-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-O-ß-d-glucoside), apigenin, and luteolin in CtACO1 overexpression lines were decreased. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed the feasibility of applying the floral dipping method to safflower and showed a novel regulatory effect of CtACO1 in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. It provides hypothetical and practical groundwork for further research on regulating the overall metabolic flux of flavonoids in safflower, particularly hydroxysafflor yellow A and other quinochalcones, by using appropriate genetic engineering strategies.

Overexpression of CtCHS1 Increases Accumulation of Quinochalcone in Safflower.

Carthami flos, the dried petal of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, in which quinochalcone glucosides such as hydrosafflower yellow A (HSYA), carthamin are uniquely present and have been identified as active compounds. In the present study, through sequencing of a safflower floret cDNA library and subsequent microarray analysis, we found 23 unigenes (5 PALs, 1 C4Hs, 5 4CLs, 6 CHSs, 2 CHIs, 2 DFRs, 2 FLSs) involved in flavonoid pathway, of which 4 were up-regulated differentially during quinochalcone glucosides accumulation with the floret developing stage. The up-regulated genes were verified by PCR methods. Considering chalcone synthase are entry enzyme in flavonoid biosynthesis, CHS1 was focused on target gene to verify its function furtherly. Bioinformation analysis showed that CHS1 shared 86.94% conserved residues with CHS from other plants. Subcellular localization showed that CtCHS1 was localized in cytoplasm in onion epidermal cells. The transgenic safflower plant with overexpression CtCHS1 by Agrobacterium-mediated pollen-tube pathway method was firstly generated. The results present that expression of PAL2, PAL3, CHS1, CHS4, CHS6 increased and expression of CHI1 and CHI2 decreased in the transgenic plant floret. Meanwhile, the accumulation of quinochalcone glucosides increased by ∼20-30% and accumulation of quercetin-3-ß-D-glucoside and quercetin decreased by 48 and 63% in the transgenic plant floret. These results suggested that CtCHS1 played an important role in quinochalcone glucosides biosynthesis rather than flavonol biosynthesis. These results also demonstrated that the pollen-tube pathway method was an efficient method for gene transformation in safflower. Our study will provide a deep understanding of potential synthetic genes involved in quinochalcone biosynthetic pathway.

Expression Patterns of Three UGT Genes in Different Chemotype Safflower Lines and under MeJA Stimulus Revealed Their Potential Role in Flavonoid Biosynthesis.

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) has received a significant amount of attention as a medicinal plant in China. Flavonoids are the dominant active medical compounds. UDP-glycosyltransferase plays an essential role in the biosynthesis and storage of flavonoids in safflower. In this study, 45 UGT unigenes were screened from our transcriptomic database of safflower. Among them, 27 UGT unigenes were predicted to own a complete open reading frame with various pI and Mw. The phylogenetic tree showed that CtUGT3 and CtUGT16 were classified under the UGT71 subfamily involved in metabolite process, whereas CtUGT25 has high identities with PoUGT both catalyzing the glycosylation of flavonoids and belonging to the UGT90 subfamily. cDNA microarray exhibited that the three UGT genes displayed temporal difference in two chemotype safflower lines. To functionally characterize UGT in safflower, CtUGT3, CtUGT16 and CtUGT25 were cloned and analyzed. Subcellular localization suggested that the three UGTs might be located in the cell cytoplasm and chloroplast. The expression pattern showed that the three UGTs were all suppressed in two lines responsive to methyl jasmonate induction. The co-expression relation of expression pattern and metabolite accumulation demonstrated that CtUGT3 and CtUGT25 were positively related to kaempferol-3-O-ß-D-glucoside and CtUGT16 was positively related to quercetin-3-O-ß-D-glucoside in yellow line, whereas CtUGT3 and CtUGT25 were positively related to quercetin-3-O-ß-D-glucoside in white line. This study indicates that the three CtUGTs play a significant and multiple role in flavonoids biosynthesis with presenting different functional characterization in two safflower lines.