Effects of berberine on a rat model of chronic stress and depression via gastrointestinal tract pathology and gastrointestinal flora profile assays.

Chronic stress and depression are challenging conditions to treat, owing to their complexity and lack of clinically available and effective therapeutic agents. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanism by which berberine acts, by examining alterations to gastrointestinal tract histopathology and flora profile in a rat model, following the induction of stress. Research associating gastrointestinal flora and depression has increased, thus, the present study hypothesized that stress induces depression and changes in the gastrointestinal system. The chronic mild stress rat model was previously established based on a set of 10 chronic unpredictable stress methods. In the present study, the measurements of body weight, behavior, gastrointestinal tract histopathology and gastrointestinal flora profile were collected in order to elucidate understanding of chronic stress and depression in this region. In the present study, induced stress and the resulting depression was demonstrated to significantly decrease the body weight and sucrose preference of rats, as well as significantly increasing traverse time, vertical movement time, grooming time and motionless time in an open­field test. Following modeling and subsequent treatment with low or high doses of berberine, the measurements were significantly different when compared with unstressed rats. Berberine appears to reverse the physical damage brought about by stress within the gastric mucosa and intestinal microvilli of the stomach, ileum, cecum and colon. Using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence­based polymerase chain reaction analysis, several distinctive bands disappeared following modeling; however, novel distinctive bands appeared in response to the graded berberine treatment. In conclusion, the present study identified that high concentrations of berberine markedly protects rats from various symptoms of chronic stress and depression, with the potential of facilitating treatment within clinical practice.

High yields and soluble expression of superoxide dismutases in Escherichia coli due to the HIV-1 Tat peptide via increases in mRNA transcription.

This study aimed to validate the high yield and soluble expression of proteins carrying the transactivator of transcription (Tat) peptide tag, and further explored the potential mechanism by which the Tat tag increases expression. Escherichia coli superoxide dismutase (SOD) proteins, including SodA, SodB and SodC, were selected for analysis. As expected, the yields and the solubility of Tat-tagged proteins were higher than those of Tat-free proteins, and similar results were observed for the total SOD enzyme activity. Bacterial cells that overexpressed Tat-tagged proteins exhibited increased anti-paraquat activity compared with those expressing Tat-free proteins that manifested as SodA>SodC>SodB. When compared with an MG1655 wild-type strain, the growth of a ΔSodA mutant strain was found to be inhibited after paraquat treatment; the growth of ΔSodB and ΔSodC mutant strains was also slightly inhibited. The mRNA transcript level of genes encoding Tat-tagged proteins was higher than that of genes encoding Tat-free proteins. Furthermore, the α-helix and turn of Tat-tagged proteins were higher than those of Tat-free proteins, but the ß-sheet and random coil content was lower. These results indicated that the incorporation of the Tat core peptide as a significant basic membrane transduction peptide in fusion proteins could increase mRNA transcripts and promote the high yield and soluble expression of heterologous proteins in E. coli.

Pichia pastoris Production of Tat-NGB and Its Neuroprotection on Rat Pheochromocytoma Cells.

Neuroglobin (NGB) is a newly discovered neuroprotector and mainly localized in the neurons and retinal cells of the central and peripheral nervous systems in vertebrates, and its prokaryotic expression protein of which fused with HIV-1 virus-encoded Tat peptide exhibited significant antioxidant and anti-hypoxia. However, no study has documented on the anti-hypoxia of yeast expressed Tat-NGB. To address it, the NGB cDNA fragment with and without Tat tag was designed and conjugated to pPIC9K followed by electroporation, and positive colonies were screened. Subsequently, Tat-NGB-His and His-NGB-His proteins were expressed by inducer methanol and identified by SDS-PAGE, and purified with HisTrap™ FF crude column. After desalting, the transmembrane transduction of Tat-NGB was examined and identified by Western blot, and the anti-hypoxia activity was also examined by CCK-8 kit. Unexpectedly, Tat-NGB-His and His-NGB-His proteins were high yield and secretory expressed in GS115 Pichia pastoris. After purification, the high purified protein was prepared and exhibited a significant transmembrane transduction of Tat-NGB-His (**p < 0.01, compare to control and His-NGB-His). Significantly, Tat-NGB-His could protect hypoxia induced injury of PC12 cells and had an obviously difference when comparing to control and His-NGB-His groups (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01). The present study first reported the yeast expressed production of Tat-NGB-His and His-NGB-His, and then elucidated the transduction and neuroprotection of Tat-NGB-His on PC12 cell. It not only provided a significant reference for high-yield expression of NGB in yeast expression system, but also provided a significant prevention and treatment of hypoxic and ischemic brain injury.