T Cell Subsets and Immune Homeostasis.

T cells are a heterogeneous group of cells that can be classified into different subtypes according to different classification methods. The body's immune system has a highly complex and effective regulatory network that allows for the relative stability of immune system function. Maintaining proper T cell homeostasis is essential for promoting protective immunity and limiting autoimmunity and tumor formation. Among the T cell family members, more and more T cell subsets have gradually been characterized. In this chapter, we summarize the functions of some key T cell subsets and their impact on immune homeostasis.

Anti-inflammatory effects of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Numerous randomised controlled trials have suggested the positive effects of acupuncture on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the underlying therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture for COPD have not been clearly summarized yet. Inflammation is central to the development of COPD. In this review, we elucidate the effects and underlying mechanisms of acupuncture from an anti-inflammatory perspective based on animal studies. Cigarette smoke combined with lipopolysaccharide is often used to establish animal models of COPD. Electroacupuncture can be an effective intervention to improve inflammation in COPD, and Feishu (BL13) and Zusanli (ST36) can be used as basic acupoints in COPD animal models. Different acupuncture types can regulate different types of inflammatory cytokines; meanwhile, different acupuncture types and acupoint options have similar effects on modulating the level of inflammatory cytokines. In particular, acupuncture exerts anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting the release of inflammatory cells, inflammasomes and inflammatory cytokines. The main underlying mechanism through which acupuncture improves inflammation in COPD is the modulation of relevant signalling pathways: nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) (e.g., myeloid differentiation primary response 88/NF-κB, toll-like receptor-4/NF-κB, silent information regulator transcript-1/NF-κB), mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling pathways (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, p38 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase), cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, and dopamine D2 receptor pathway. The current synthesis will be beneficial for further research on the effect of acupuncture on COPD inflammation. Please cite this article as: Jiang LH, Li PJ, Wang YQ, Jiang ML, Han XY, Bao YD, Deng XL, Wu WB, Liu XD. Anti-inflammatory effects of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. J Integr Med. 2023; 21(6): 518-527.

The Regulation and Modification of GSDMD Signaling in Diseases.

Gasdermin D (GSDMD) serves as a key executor to trigger pyroptosis and is emerging as an attractive checkpoint in host defense, inflammatory, autoimmune diseases, and many other systemic diseases. Although canonical and non-canonical inflammasome-mediated classic GSDMD cleavage, GSDMD-NT migration to cell membrane, GSDMD-NT oligomerization, and pore forming have been well recognized, a few unique features of GSDMD in specific condition beyond its classic function, including non-lytic function of GSDMD, the modification and regulating mechanism of GSDMD signaling have also come to great attention and played a crucial role in biological processes and diseases. In the current review, we emphasized the GSDMD protein expression, stabilization, modification, activation, pore formation, and repair during pyroptosis, especially the regulation and modification of GSDMD signaling, such as GSDMD complex in polyubiquitination and non-pyroptosis release of IL-1ß, ADP-riboxanation, NINJ1 in pore forming, GSDMD binding protein TRIM21, GSDMD succination, and Regulator-Rag-mTOR-ROS regulation of GSDMD. We also discussed the novel therapeutic strategies of targeting GSDMD and summarized recently identified inhibitors with great prospect.

The roles of fungus in CNS autoimmune and neurodegeneration disorders.

Fungal infection or proliferation in our body is capable of initiation of strong inflammation and immune responses that result in different consequences, including infection-trigged organ injury and inflammation-related remote organ dysfunction. Fungi associated infectious diseases have been well recognized in the clinic. However, whether fungi play an important role in non-infectious central nervous system disease is still to be elucidated. Recently, a growing amount of evidence point to a non-negligible role of peripheral fungus in triggering unique inflammation, immune response, and exacerbation of a range of non-infectious CNS disorders, including Multiple sclerosis, Neuromyelitis optica, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis et al. In this review, we summarized the recent advances in recognizing patterns and inflammatory signaling of fungi in different subsets of immune cells, with a specific focus on its function in CNS autoimmune and neurodegeneration diseases. In conclusion, the fungus is capable of triggering unique inflammation by multiple mechanisms in the progression of a body of CNS non-infectious diseases, suggesting it serves as a key factor and critical novel target for the development of potential therapeutic strategies.

IL-37 Represses the Autoimmunity in Myasthenia Gravis via Directly Targeting Follicular Th and B Cells.

IL-37 is a newly identified immune-suppressive factor; however, the function, cellular sources, and mechanism of IL-37 in humoral immunity and Myasthenia gravis (MG) are still unclear. In this study, we found IL-37 were substantially downregulated in the serum and PBMCs of MG patients compared with healthy controls. The lower IL-37 was associated with severer disease (quantitative MG score) and higher follicular Th (Tfh)/Tfh17 and B cell numbers. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that IL-37 was mainly produced by CD4+ T cells without overlapping with Th1, Th17, and Tfh subsets in MG patients. Regulatory IL-37+ T cell rarely expressed Foxp3 and CD25 but produced numerous IL-4. Tfh and B cell expressed high levels of SIGIRR, the receptor of IL-37, in MG patients. Mechanically, IL-37 directly bond to SIGIRR, repressed the proliferation, cytokine production of Tfh and B cells, and the secretion of autoantibody via inhibition of STAT3 signaling in Tfh and B cells.

ING5 inhibits cell proliferation and invasion in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma through regulation of the Akt/NF-κB/MMP-9 signaling pathway.

The inhibitor of growth 5 (ING5) is a new candidate tumor suppressor gene (TSG) of the ING family. So far, there have been many reports about its functions related to cancer development. However, the biological roles of ING5 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain unclear. In the present study, we demonstrated that ING5 was lowly expressed in ESCC tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of ING5 inhibited ESCC cell proliferation and invasion in vitro as well as suppressed tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. We also found that overexpression of ING5 significantly decreased the levels of p-AKT, NF-κB and MMP-9 in ECA109 cells. Taken together, these findings demonstrated that ING5 inhibited cell proliferation and invasion in ESCC through regulation of the Akt/NF-κB/MMP-9 signaling pathway. Thus, ING5 might be considered a promising target for ESCC treatment.

Expression of Wnt/ß-catenin related genes after skeletal muscle contusion.

BACKGROUND: It was aimed to determine expressions of genes related to Wnt/ß-catenin signaling for evaluating time duration after skeletal muscle contusion. METHODS: Pathological change of skeletal muscle was observed after H-E staining. mRNA of respective genes was quantified with real-time quantitative PCR. Expression of ß-catenin was further characterized with immunostaining and quantified as intensity/area and further immune blotting and quantified as grey intensity normalized to loading control (GADPH). RESULTS: After injury, skeletal muscle exhibited prominent inflammatory response, hyperplasia and regeneration. Infiltration of inflammatory cell, formation of myotube and maturation of skeletal muscle fiber were observed under HE staining. Expression of FZD4, Myo D, Myf5 changed during early stages after injury and could serve to evaluate injury within 24 h; Expression of SFRP5 and Fra1 changed during early-to-intermediate stages after injury and could serve to evaluate injury within 12-48 h; Expression of MRF4 changed during intermediate stages after injury and could serve to evaluate injury within 36-48 h; Expression of ß-catenin changed during intermediate stages after injury and could serve to evaluate injury within 36 h-3 d; Expression of MyoG changed during late stages after injury and could serve to evaluate injury within 48 h-7 d. Immunostaining experiments showed that 36 h after injury, membrane ß-catenin decreased while nucleus ß-catenin increased. CONCLUSION: Wnt/ß-catenin related genes are involved in regeneration of skeletal muscle after contusion. The sequential changes of gene expression can be used for evaluating the duration after contusion.

Evaluating antithrombotic activity of HY023016 on rat hypercoagulable model.

The generation of thrombus is not considered as an isolated progression without other pathologic processes, which may also enhance procoagulant state. The purpose of this study was to assess whether HY023016, a novel dabigatran prodrug and an oral direct thrombin inhibitor, or dabigatran etexilate, another thrombin inhibitor can improve the state of whole blood hypercoagulability in vitro/vivo. By using whole blood flow cytometry we explored the effects of HY023016 and dabigatran etexilate on thrombin and ADP-induced human platelet-leukocyte aggregation generated in vitro. With the method of continuous infusion of thrombin intravenous, we successfully established a rat hypercoagulable model and evaluated the effect of HY023016 or dabigatran etexilate in vivo. HY023016 was able to inhibit thrombin- or ADP-induced platelet P-selectin or CD40L expression, leukocyte CD11b expression and formation of platelet-leukocyte aggregates in dose-dependent manner. Dabigatran etexilate was unable to affect ADP-induced platelet P-selectin or CD40L expression, leukocyte CD11b expression and formation of platelet-leukocyte aggregates. Based on rat hypercoagulable model, dabigatran etexilate could reverse thrombin-induced circulatory system hypercoagulable state in a concentration-dependent manner. Dabigatran etexilate also inhibited electrical stimulation induced formation of arterial thrombus in rat under hypercoagulable state, and extracorporal circulation-induced formation of thrombus in dose-dependent manner. Compared with dabigatran etexilate, HY023016 showed nearly equal or even better antithrombotic activity, regardless of reversing the cycle of rat hypercoagulable state or inhibiting platelet-leukocyte aggregation. In surrmary, HY023016 could effectively improve hypercoagulable state of circulatory system.

Antidepressant-like effect of evodiamine on chronic unpredictable mild stress rats.

Evodiamine is a major alkaloid compound extracted from the dry unripened fruit Evodia fructus (Evodia rutaecarpa Benth., Rutaceae), which has a variety of pharmacological activities. The present study aims to determine the antidepressant-like effect of evodiamine in a rat model of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). We identified that evodiamine could reverse the following CUMS-induced behavioural deficits and biochemical changes in rats: the decreases of sucrose preference, number of crossings, 5-HT and NA levels, as well as the increase of immobility time. Evodiamine treatments also ameliorated the corticosterone hypersecretion induced by CUMS. Furthermore, we found that evodiamine was able to up-regulate the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and phosphorylated tropomyosin-related kinase B (pTrkB) without altering TrkB. This study suggests potential antidepressant-like effect of evodiamine on CUMS rats, and its underlying mechanisms can be potentially linked to their modulating effects on the monoamine transmitters and BDNF-TrkB signaling in the hippocampus.

Antithrombotic activity of HY023016, a novel Dabigatran prodrug evaluated in animal thrombosis models.

INTRODUCTION: Thrombin is a multifunctional trypsin-like serine protease that plays key roles in coagulation and thrombogenesis. HY023016, a novel Dabigatran prodrug, is an oral direct thrombin inhibitor. The purpose of this study was to compare the anti-thrombotic activities and haemorrhagic effects of HY023016 with Dabigatran etexilate and tetramethylpyrazine in several animal thrombosis models. METHODS: To investigate drug exposure, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was used to determine the pharmacokinetic profile of HY023016. After single intragastric administrations of HY023016, Dabigatran etexilate or tetramethylpyrazine, the anti-thrombotic activities were evaluated through rabbit jugular vein thrombosis model, rat inferior vena cava thrombosis model, ex vivo rabbit platelet aggregation assay, in vivo rabbit coagulation assay, and direct thrombin binding assay. Meanwhile, we evaluated the effect of HY023016 on expression of tissue factor (TF) by RT-PCR. Rabbit cuticle bleeding assay and mouse tail bleeding assay were applied to evaluate the effects of HY023016 on haemorrhage. RESULTS: Pharmacokinetic parameters indicated that HY023016 can convert to Dabigatran and tetramethylpyrazine. Our studies showed that HY023016 was able to significantly inhibit thrombus formation in a dose-dependent manner in rabbit and rat models (P<0.05). Similarly, it was able to dose-dependently inhibit thrombin- or ADP-induced platelet aggregation, prolonging the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT), inhibiting the activity of thrombin and inhibiting thrombin- or ADP-induced expression of TF (P<0.05 or 0.01). Dabigatran etexilate was also able to dose-dependently and significantly inhibit thrombus formation (P<0.01) but was unable to affect ADP-induced platelet aggregation and expression of TF. In contrast, tetramethylpyrazine could only exhibit mild antithrombotic activity compared with HY023016 and Dabigatran etexilate (P<0.05). HY023016 could prolong bleeding time (P<0.001), but the prolongations were significantly less than Dabigatran etexilate (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: HY023016 showed thrombosis-inhibition activities comparable to those of Dabigatran etexilate, but better than those of tetramethylpyrazine. The attendant bleeding risk of HY023016 was lower than Dabigatran etexilate in rabbits and mice.