Effects and associated transcriptomic landscape changes of methamphetamine on immune cells.

BACKGROUND: Methamphetamine (METH) abuse causes serious health problems, including injury to the immune system, leading to increased incidence of infections and even making withdrawal more difficult. Of course, immune cells, an important part of the immune system, are also injured in methamphetamine abuse. However, due to different research models and the lack of bioinformatics, the mechanism of METH injury to immune cells has not been clarified. METHODS: We examined the response of three common immune cell lines, namely Jurkat, NK-92 and THP-1 cell lines, to methamphetamine by cell viability and apoptosis assay in vitro, and examined their response patterns at the mRNA level by RNA-sequencing. Differential expression analysis of two conditions (control and METH treatment) in three types of immune cells was performed using the DESeq2 R package (1.20.0). And some of the differentially expressed genes were verified by qPCR. We performed Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis of differentially expressed genes by the clusterProfiler R package (3.14.3). And gene enrichment analysis was also performed using MetaScape ( www.metascape.org ). RESULTS: The viability of the three immune cells was differentially affected by methamphetamine, and the rate of NK-cell apoptosis was significantly increased. At the mRNA level, we found disorders of cholesterol metabolism in Jurkat cells, activation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascade in NK-92 cells, and disruption of calcium transport channels in THP-1 cells. In addition, all three cells showed changes in the phospholipid metabolic process. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that both innate and adaptive immune cells are affected by METH abuse, and there may be commonalities between different immune cells at the transcriptome level. These results provide new insights into the potential effects by which METH injures the immune cells.

Long-term exercise at different intensities can reduce the inflammatory response in the brains of methamphetamine-treated mice.

Methamphetamine (METH) is a highly addictive psychoactive drug that is used worldwide. Various approaches have been used to address METH dependence, but many of them have little effect. Previous studies have shown that exercise on a treadmill could reduce METH dependence in mice, but the intensity and duration of exercise that was needed to be effective was unknown. This study investigated the effects of low- and medium-intensity treadmill exercise on methamphetamine reward in male mice via conditioned place preference (CPP) training, and the levels of the inflammatory factors IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α in three brain regions (cerebral cortex, hippocampus and striatum) were determined. The results showed that long-term medium-intensity exercise reduced the effects of methamphetamine on inflammation markers in the brain and CPP scores. In addition, long-term medium-intensity exercise decreased IL-1ß concentrations in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, reduced IL-6 concentrations in the striatum, and reduced TNF-α concentrations in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and striatum in methamphetamine-treated mice; low-intensity exercise was less effective. The results indicated that long-term medium-intensity exercise could reduce concentrations of methamphetamine-induced encephalitis factors in male mice, while low-intensity exercise was less effective in alleviating dependence and inflammatory responses. It is suggested that exercise intensity is an important factor affecting the dependence level and inflammatory responses in the brain in mice administered methamphetamine.

EPB41L3 is a potential tumor suppressor gene and prognostic indicator in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Although there have been reports about the role of erythrocyte membrane protein band 4.1 like 3 (EPB41L3) in several types of cancer, primarily in non-small-cell lung carcinoma, the molecular function and modulatory mechanisms of EPB41L3 remain unclear. In specific, the functional and clinical significance of EPB41L3 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been explored to date. In the present study, reduced EPB41L3 expression was demonstrated in ESCC cell lines and tissues, which was due to its high methylation rate. Ectopic expression of EPB41L3 in ESCC cells inhibited cell proliferation in vivo and in vitro. In addition, EPB41L3 overexpression induced apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest by activating Caspase-3/8/9 and Cyclin-dependent kinase 1/Cyclin B1 signaling, respectively. Notably, patients with higher EPB41L3 expression had markedly higher overall survival rates compared with patients with lower EPB41L3 expression. In summary, the present results suggest that EPB41L3 may be a tumor suppressor gene in ESCC development, representing a potential therapeutic target and a prognostic indicator for ESCC.