Natural compounds target programmed cell death (PCD) signaling mechanism to treat ulcerative colitis: a review.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a nonspecific inflammatory bowel disease characterized by abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, weight loss, and colon shortening. However, UC is difficult to cure due to its high drug resistance rate and easy recurrence. Moreover, long-term inflammation and increased disease severity can lead to the development of colon cancer in some patients. Programmed cell death (PCD) is a gene-regulated cell death process that includes apoptosis, autophagy, necroptosis, ferroptosis, and pyroptosis. PCD plays a crucial role in maintaining body homeostasis and the development of organs and tissues. Abnormal PCD signaling is observed in the pathological process of UC, such as activating the apoptosis signaling pathway to promote the progression of UC. Targeting PCD may be a therapeutic strategy, and natural compounds have shown great potential in modulating key targets of PCD to treat UC. For instance, baicalin can regulate cell apoptosis to alleviate inflammatory infiltration and pathological damage. This review focuses on the specific expression of PCD and its interaction with multiple signaling pathways, such as NF-κB, Nrf2, MAPK, JAK/STAT, PI3K/AKT, NLRP3, GPX4, Bcl-2, etc., to elucidate the role of natural compounds in targeting PCD for the treatment of UC. This review used (ulcerative colitis) (programmed cell death) and (natural products) as keywords to search the related studies in PubMed and the Web of Science, and CNKI database of the past 10 years. This work retrieved 72 studies (65 from the past 5 years and 7 from the past 10 years), which aims to provide new treatment strategies for UC patients and serves as a foundation for the development of new drugs.

Effects of oxidative stress regulation in inflammation-associated gastric cancer progression treated using traditional Chinese medicines: A review.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a global public health concern that poses a serious threat to human health owing to its high morbidity and mortality rates. Due to the lack of specificity of symptoms, patients with GC tend to be diagnosed at an advanced stage with poor prognosis. Therefore, the development of new treatment methods is particularly urgent. Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), a precancerous GC lesion, plays a key role in its occurrence and development. Oxidative stress has been identified as an important factor driving the development and progression of the pathological processes of CAG and GC. Therefore, regulating oxidative stress pathways can not only intervene in CAG development but also prevent the occurrence and metastasis of GC and improve the prognosis of GC patients. In this study, PubMed, CNKI, and Web of Science were used to search for a large number of relevant studies. The review results suggested that the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and TCM prescriptions could target and improve inflammation, pathological status, metastasis, and invasion of tumor cells, providing a potential new supplement for the treatment of CAG and GC.

Actin Gamma 1, a new skin cancer pathogenic gene, identified by the biological feature-based classification.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer that accounting for at least 40% of cancer cases around the world. This study aimed to identify skin cancer-related biological features and predict skin cancer candidate genes by employing machine learning based on biological features of known skin cancer genes. The known skin cancer-related genes were fetched from database and encoded by the enrichment scores of gene ontology and pathways. The optimal features of the skin cancer related genes were selected with a series of feature selection methods, such as mRMR, IFS, and Random Forest algorithm. Quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) was performed for the predicted genes. Effects on proliferation and metastasis of skin cancer cell line A431 were detected through MTT and transwell assay. The effects on myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation of Actin Gamma 1 (ACTG1) were detected by Western blot. A total of 1233 GO terms and 55 KEGG pathway terms were identified as the optimal features for the depiction of skin cancer. According to those terms, 1134 possible skin cancer-related genes were predicted. We further identified 16 new biomarkers in expression and the classification model can predict skin cancer cases with 100% accuracy. Among the 16 genes, ACTG1 had significantly high expression in skin cancer tissue. Our investigation suggested that ACTG1 can regulate the cell proliferation and migration through ROCK signaling pathway.

Combination of concurrent endoscopic submucosal dissection and modified peroral endoscopic myotomy for an achalasia patient with synchronous early esophageal neoplasms.

Achalasia is generally accepted as a condition associated with an increased risk for developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. In our paper, we introduced an achalasia patient combined with synchronous early esophageal neoplasms. We performed a combination of concurrent endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM). No complications other than postoperative pain that needed morphine treatment for two days had occurred. Dysphagia was significantly improved. Neither reflux nor cough occurred. The short-term efficacy and safety of our case is favorable and suggests that concurrent ESD and POEM could be a treatment option to such patients.

Serum omentin-1 as a disease activity marker for Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: It remains challenging to determine the inflammatory activity in Crohn's disease (CD) for lack of specific laboratory markers. Recent studies suggest that serum omentin-1 is associated with inflammatory response. We aimed to assess the potential of serum omentin-1 as a marker of disease activity in CD patients. METHODS: Serum omentin-1 concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in patients with CD (n = 240), functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGDs, n = 120), and healthy controls (HC, n = 60) and evaluated for correlation with disease activity. Expression of omentin-1 in colonic tissues from patients with CD was also analyzed by real-time PCR and Western blotting. Serum omentin-1 levels as an activity index were evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: Serum omentin-1 concentrations were significantly decreased in active CD patients compared with patients in remission, FGDs, and HC (all P < 0.001). Expression of omentin-1 was decreased at mRNA and protein levels in inflamed colonic tissues in active CD than that in noninflamed colonic tissues. Serum omentin-1 levels were negatively correlated with disease activity in CD, better than C-reactive protein (CRP). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that serum and colonic omentin-1 expressions are decreased in active CD patients. The correlation of serum omentin-1 with disease activity in CD is superior to that of CRP. Serum omentin-1 is a potential marker for CD disease activity.