Dioscin Reduces Vascular Damage in the Retina of db/db Mice by Inhibiting the VEGFA Signaling Pathway.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a complication of diabetes that has a serious impact on the quality of life of patients. VEGFA is necessary in the physiological state to maintain endothelial activity and physical properties of blood vessels. VEGFA plays an important role in the promotion of neovascularization; therefore, inhibition of VEGFA can degrade the structure of blood vessels and reduce neovascularization. In the present study, HERB, a high-throughput experimental and reference-oriented database of herbal medicines, was used for compound mining targeting VEGFA. The compounds most likely to interact with VEGFA were screened by molecular docking. Next, the compounds were used to verify whether it could inhibit the activity of the VEGF signaling pathway in vitro and neovascularization in vivo. In vitro, we found that dioscin could inhibit the activation of the VEGFA-VEGFR2 signaling pathway and cell proliferation of human retinal microvascular endothelial cells in a high-glucose (HG) environment. A more important dioscin intervention inhibits the expression of pro-angiogenic factors in the retinas of db/db mice. In conclusion, our study indicates that dioscin reduces the vascular damage and the expression of pro-angiogenic factors in the retina of db/db mice and implies an important and potential application of dioscin for treatment of DR in clinics.

Two novel selenidostannates from mixed structure-directing systems: the large ten-membered ring of [Sn3Se4] semicubes and the 3D [Sn4Se9]n(2n-) with multi-channels.

Ionothermal syntheses, characterization and properties of two selenidostannate compounds with two- or three-dimensional (D) skeletons by utilizing the synergistic structure-directing effects of the ionic liquid (IL) [Bmmim]Cl (Bmmim = 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium) and in-situ generated metal-amine complexes (MACs), namely, 2D-(Bmmim)2[Ni(teta)(en)][Sn3Se7]2 (1, teta = triethylenetetramine, en = ethylenediamine) and 3D-(Bmmim)1.5(dienH)0.5Ni(dien)2[Sn4Se9]2 (2, dien = diethylenetriamine) are presented. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses revealed that compound 1 possesses a lamellar anionic [Sn3Se7]n(2n-) structure comprising a large ten-membered ring with a window size of 24.85 × 13.38 Å when considering the [Sn3Se4] semicube as a member. While 2 features a 3D [Sn4Se9]n(2n-) framework with orthogonally intersecting channels where the three different types of cations are filled. The successful isolation of these two compounds demonstrated again that the mixed SDA strategy is promising for the synthesis of novel crystalline selenidostannates.