Deep learning enables the discovery of a novel cuproptosis-inducing molecule for the inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and deadly cancers in the world. The therapeutic outlook for HCC patients has significantly improved with the advent and development of systematic and targeted therapies such as sorafenib and lenvatinib; however, the rise of drug resistance and the high mortality rate necessitate the continuous discovery of effective targeting agents. To discover novel anti-HCC compounds, we first constructed a deep learning-based chemical representation model to screen more than 6 million compounds in the ZINC15 drug-like library. We successfully identified LGOd1 as a novel anticancer agent with a characteristic levoglucosenone (LGO) scaffold. The mechanistic studies revealed that LGOd1 treatment leads to HCC cell death by interfering with cellular copper homeostasis, which is similar to a recently reported copper-dependent cell death named cuproptosis. While the prototypical cuproptosis is brought on by copper ionophore-induced copper overload, mechanistic studies indicated that LGOd1 does not act as a copper ionophore, but most likely by interacting with the copper chaperone protein CCS, thus LGOd1 represents a potentially new class of compounds with unique cuproptosis-inducing property. In summary, our findings highlight the critical role of bioavailable copper in the regulation of cell death and represent a novel route of cuproptosis induction.

TFEB, a master regulator of autophagy and biogenesis, unexpectedly promotes apoptosis in response to the cyclopentenone prostaglandin 15d-PGJ2.

Transcriptional factor EB (TFEB), a master regulator of autophagy and lysosomal biogenesis, is generally regarded as a pro-survival factor. Here, we identify that besides its effect on autophagy induction, TFEB exerts a pro-apoptotic effect in response to the cyclopentenone prostaglandin 15-deoxy-∆-12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2). Specifically, 15d-PGJ2 promotes TFEB translocation from the cytoplasm into the nucleus to induce autophagy and lysosome biogenesis via reactive oxygen species (ROS) production rather than mTORC1 inactivation. Surprisingly, TFEB promotes rather than inhibits apoptosis in response to 15d-PGJ2. Mechanistically, ROS-mediated TFEB translocation into the nucleus transcriptionally upregulates the expression of ATF4, which is required for apoptosis elicited by 15d-PGJ2. Additionally, inhibition of TFEB activation by ROS scavenger N-acetyl cysteine or inhibition of protein synthesis by cycloheximide effectively compromises ATF4 upregulation and apoptosis in response to 15d-PGJ2. Collectively, these results indicate that ROS-induced TFEB activation exerts a novel role in promoting apoptosis besides its role in regulating autophagy in response to 15d-PGJ2. This work not only evidences how TFEB is activated by 15d-PGJ2, but also unveils a previously unexplored role of ROS-dependent activation of TFEB in modulating cell apoptosis in response to 15d-PGJ2.

Neuroprotective Natural Products for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease by Targeting the Autophagy-Lysosome Pathway: A Systematic Review.

The autophagy-lysosome pathway (ALP) is a primary means by which damaged organelles and long-lived proteins are removed from cells and their components recycled. Impairment of the ALP has been found to be linked to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD), a chronic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of protein aggregates and loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. In recent years, some active compounds derived from plants have been found to regulate the ALP and to exert neuroprotective effects in experimental models of PD, raising the possibility that autophagy enhancement may be an effective therapeutic strategy in PD treatment. In this review, we summarize recent findings of natural products that enhance ALP and thereby protect against PD. Research articles were retrieved from PubMed using relevant keywords in combination. Papers related to the topic were identified, and then the reliability of the experiments was assessed in terms of methodology. The results suggest that targeting the ALP with natural products is a promising strategy for PD treatment. However, risk of bias exists in some studies due to the defective methodology. Rigorous experimental design following the guidelines of autophagy assays, molecular target identification and in vivo efficacy evaluation is critical for the development of ALP enhancers for PD treatment in future studies. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Neurogenic Traditional Chinese Medicine as a Promising Strategy for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Hippocampal neurogenesis plays a critical role in the formation of new neurons during learning and memory development. Attenuation of neurogenesis in the brain is one of the primary causes of dementia in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and, conversely, modulating the process of hippocampal neurogenesis benefit patients with AD. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), particularly herbal medicine, has been in use for thousands of years in Asia and many regions of the world for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we summarize the role of neurotrophic factors, signal transducing factors, epigenetic modulators and neurotransmitters in neurogenesis, and we also discuss the functions of several Chinese herbs and their active molecules in activating multiple pathways involved in neurogenesis. TCM herbs target pathways such as Notch, Wnt, Sonic Hedgehog and receptor tyrosine kinase pathway, leading to activation of a signaling cascade that ultimately enhances the transcription of several important genes necessary for neurogenesis. Given these pathway activating effects, the use of TCM herbs could be an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of AD.

Bornyl caffeate induces apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells via the ROS- and JNK-mediated pathways.

AIM: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the anticancer activity of bornyl caffeate in the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. METHODS: The cell viability was determined using the MTT assay, and apoptosis was initially defined by monitoring the morphology of the cell nuclei and staining an early apoptotic biomarker with Annexin V-FITC. The mitochondrial membrane potential was visualized by JC-1 under fluorescence microscopy, whereas intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were assessed by flow cytometry. The expression of apoptosis-associated proteins was determined by Western blotting analysis. RESULTS: Bornyl caffeate induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Consistently, bornyl caffeate increased Bax and decreased Bcl-xl, resulting in the disruption of MMP and subsequent activation of caspase-3. Moreover, bornyl caffeate triggered the formation of ROS and the activation of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). Antioxidants attenuated the activation of MAP kinase p38 but barely affected the activation of JNK. Importantly, the cytotoxicity of bornyl caffeate was partially attenuated by scavenging ROS and inhibited by MAP kinases and caspases. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that bornyl caffeate induced apoptosis in the cancer cell line MCF-7 via activating the ROS- and JNK-mediated pathways. Thus, bornyl caffeate may be a potential anticancer lead compound.

Targeting Aggrephagy for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in older individuals with specific neuropsychiatric symptoms. It is a proteinopathy, pathologically characterized by the presence of misfolded protein (Aß and Tau) aggregates in the brain, causing progressive dementia. Increasing studies have provided evidence that the defect in protein-degrading systems, especially the autophagy-lysosome pathway (ALP), plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AD. Recent studies have demonstrated that AD-associated protein aggregates can be selectively recognized by some receptors and then be degraded by ALP, a process termed aggrephagy. In this study, we reviewed the role of aggrephagy in AD development and discussed the strategy of promoting aggrephagy using small molecules for the treatment of AD.

A small molecule transcription factor EB activator ameliorates beta-amyloid precursor protein and Tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease models.

Accumulating studies have suggested that targeting transcription factor EB (TFEB), an essential regulator of autophagy-lysosomal pathway (ALP), is promising for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, potent and specific small molecule TFEB activators are not available at present. Previously, we identified a novel TFEB activator named curcumin analog C1 which directly binds to and activates TFEB. In this study, we systematically investigated the efficacy of curcumin analog C1 in three AD animal models that represent beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) pathology (5xFAD mice), tauopathy (P301S mice) and the APP/Tau combined pathology (3xTg-AD mice). We found that C1 efficiently activated TFEB, enhanced autophagy and lysosomal activity, and reduced APP, APP C-terminal fragments (CTF-ß/α), ß-amyloid peptides and Tau aggregates in these models accompanied by improved synaptic and cognitive function. Knockdown of TFEB and inhibition of lysosomal activity significantly inhibited the effects of C1 on APP and Tau degradation in vitro. In summary, curcumin analog C1 is a potent TFEB activator with promise for the prevention or treatment of AD.

NeuroDefend, a novel Chinese medicine, attenuates amyloid-ß and tau pathology in experimental Alzheimer's disease models.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder. Amyloid-ß (Aß) and hyper-phosphorylated tau accumulation are accountable for the progressive neuronal loss and cognitive impairments usually observed in AD. Currently, medications for AD offer moderate symptomatic relief but fail to cure the disease; hence development of effective and safe drugs is urgently needed for AD treatment. In this study, we investigated a Chinese medicine (CM) formulation named NeuroDefend (ND), for reducing amyloid ß (Aß) and tau pathology in transgenic AD mice models. Regular oral administration of ND improved cognitive function and memory in 3XTg-AD and 5XFAD mice. In addition, ND reduced beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), APP C-terminal fragments (CTF-ß/α), Aß and 4G8 positive Aß burden in 3XTg-AD and 5XFAD mice. Furthermore, ND efficiently reduced the levels of insoluble phospho-tau protein aggregates and AT8 positive phospho tau neuron load in 3XTg-AD mice. Hence, ND could be a promising candidate for the treatment of AD in humans.

Phosphoproteome-based kinase activity profiling reveals the critical role of MAP2K2 and PLK1 in neuronal autophagy.

Recent studies have demonstrated that dysregulation of macroautophagy/autophagy may play a central role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, and the induction of autophagy protects against the toxic insults of aggregate-prone proteins by enhancing their clearance. Thus, autophagy has become a promising therapeutic target against neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, quantitative phosphoproteomic profiling together with a computational analysis was performed to delineate the phosphorylation signaling networks regulated by 2 natural neuroprotective autophagy enhancers, corynoxine (Cory) and corynoxine B (Cory B). To identify key regulators, namely, protein kinases, we developed a novel network-based algorithm of in silico Kinome Activity Profiling (iKAP) to computationally infer potentially important protein kinases from phosphorylation networks. Using this algorithm, we observed that Cory or Cory B potentially regulated several kinases. We predicted and validated that Cory, but not Cory B, downregulated a well-documented autophagy kinase, RPS6KB1/p70S6K (ribosomal protein S6 kinase, polypeptide 1). We also discovered 2 kinases, MAP2K2/MEK2 (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 2) and PLK1 (polo-like kinase 1), to be potentially upregulated by Cory, whereas the siRNA-mediated knockdown of Map2k2 and Plk1 significantly inhibited Cory-induced autophagy. Furthermore, Cory promoted the clearance of Alzheimer disease-associated APP (amyloid ß [A4] precursor protein) and Parkinson disease-associated SNCA/α-synuclein (synuclein, α) by enhancing autophagy, and these effects were dramatically diminished by the inhibition of the kinase activities of MAP2K2 and PLK1. As a whole, our study not only developed a powerful method for the identification of important regulators from the phosphoproteomic data but also identified the important role of MAP2K2 and PLK1 in neuronal autophagy.

Botanical drug puerarin coordinates with nerve growth factor in the regulation of neuronal survival and neuritogenesis via activating ERK1/2 and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways in the neurite extension process.

AIM: Nerve growth factor (NGF) regulates neuronal survival and differentiation by activating extracellular signal-regulated-kinases (ERK) 1/2 and phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathways in two distinct processes: latency process and neurite extension process. This study was designed to investigate whether botanical drug C-glucosylated isoflavone puerarin coordinates with NGF to regulate neuritogenesis via activating ERK1/2 and PI3K/Akt in neurite extension process. METHODS: We investigated the neuroprotective and neurotrophic activities of puerarin in MPTP-lesioned mice and dopaminergic PC12 cells. The effects of puerarin on ERK1/2, Akt, Nrf2, and HO-1 were assessed by Western blotting. The neurite outgrowth was assayed by neurite outgrowth staining kit. RESULTS: Puerarin protected dopaminergic cells and ameliorated the behavioral impairments in MPTP-lesioned mice. Puerarin potentiated the effect of NGF on neuritogenesis in PC12 cells by >10-fold. Mechanistic studies revealed: (1) puerarin rapidly activated ERK1/2 and Akt, leading to the activation of Nrf2/heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) pathways; (2) ERK1/2, PI3K/Akt, and HO-1 inhibitors attenuated the neuritogenic activity of puerarin. Notably, puerarin enhanced NGF-induced neuritogenesis in a timing-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: Puerarin effectively coordinated with NGF to stimulate neuritogenesis via activating ERK1/2 and PI3K/Akt pathways in neurite extension process. These results demonstrated a general mechanism supporting the therapeutic application of puerarin-related compounds in neurodegenerative diseases.