Curcumin Activates ROS Signaling to Promote Pyroptosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma HepG2 Cells.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Curcumin is a polyphenol that exerts a variety of pharmacological activities and plays an anti-cancer role in many cancer cells. It was recently reported that gasdermin E (GSDME) is involved in the progression of pyroptosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HepG2 cells were treated with various concentrations of curcumin and cell viability was examined using MTT assay, apoptosis was analysed using flow cytometry, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels using dihydroethidium, LDH release using an LDH cytotoxicity assay, and protein expression using western blot. RESULTS: Curcumin increased the expression of the GSDME N-terminus and proteins involved in pyrolysis, promoted HspG2 cell pyrolysis and increased intracellular ROS levels. Moreover, inhibition of the production of intracellular ROS with n-acetylcysteine (NAC) improved the degree of apoptosis and pyrolysis induced by curcumin. CONCLUSION: Curcumin induces HspG2 cell death by increasing apoptosis and pyroptosis, and ROS play a key role in this process. This study improves our understanding of the potential anti-cancer properties of curcumin in liver cancer.

Genome sequence characterization of canine parvoviruses prevalent in the Sichuan province of China.

Canine parvovirus 2 (CPV-2) infection is responsible for large numbers of animal deaths worldwide and is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases in young puppies. Twenty-four rectal swabs were collected from dogs with clinical signs of vomiting and haemorrhagic diarrhoea and were initially verified to be infected with CPV-2 using colloidal gold test strips. From the 24 CPV-positive samples, complete genome of 5050-5054 nucleotides was sequenced with a next-generation sequencing platform. Characteristics of the Open Reading Frames from different CPV-2 strains detected in this study were analyzed. Several VP2 point mutations were discovered, and demonstrated the co-circulation of new CPV-2a, new CPV-2b and CPV-2c in Sichuan province of China. The analysis results of the Chinese CPV-2 retrieved from the NCBI nucleotide, showed that new CPV-2a has become the predominant variant in some provinces of China. Phylogenetic analysis of global VP2 and NS1 nucleotide sequences revealed certain correlations among geographical regions, types and circulating time, which lays the foundation for further research concerning the epidemiology, genetic variation, vaccination and molecular evolutionary relationships of the CPV-2 identified at different times and from different regions.