Role of intracellular signaling pathways and their inhibitors in the treatment of inflammation

1,4-Diaryl-1,2,3-triazole neolignan-celecoxib hybrids inhibit experimental arthritis induced by zymosan

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes cartilage damage. Anti-inflammatories are widely used in the management of RA, but they can have side effects such as gastrointestinal and/or cardiovascular disorders. Studies published by our group showed that the synthesis of hybrid triazole analogs neolignan-celecoxib containing the substituent groups sulfonamide (L15) or carboxylic acid (L18) exhibited anti-inflammatory activity in an acute model of inflammation, inhibited expression of P-selectin related to platelet activation and did not induce gastric ulcer, minimizing the related side effects. In continuation, the present study evaluated the anti-inflammatory effects of these analogs in an experimental model of arthritis and on the functions of one of the important cells in this process, macrophages. Mechanical hyperalgesia, joint edema, leukocyte recruitment to the joint and damage to cartilage in experimental arthritis and cytotoxicity, spread of disease, phagocytic activity and nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide production by macrophages were evaluated. Pre-treatment with L15 and L18 reduced mechanical hyperalgesia, joint edema and the influx of leukocytes into the joint cavity after different periods of the stimulus. The histological evaluation of the joint showed that L15 and L18 reduced cartilage damage and there was no formation of rheumatoid pannus. Furthermore, L15 and L18 were non-cytotoxic. The analogs inhibited the spreading, the production of NO and hydrogen peroxide. L15 decreased the phagocytosis. Therefore, L15 and L18 may be potential therapeutic prototypes to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as RA.

Dual Activation of Calcium Channels Using Near-Infrared Responsive Conjugated Oligomer Nanoparticles for Precise Regulation of Blood Glucose Homeostasis

The rarity of efficient tools with spatiotemporal resolution and biocompatibility capabilities remains a major challenge for further progress and application of signaling manipulation. Herein, biomimetic conjugated oligomeric nanoparticles (CM-CONs) were developed to precisely modulate blood glucose homeostasis via the two-pronged activation of calcium channels. Under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation, CM-CONs efficiently generate local heat and reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby simultaneously activating thermosensitive transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) and ROS-sensitive transient receptor potential A1 (TRPA1) calcium channels in small intestinal endocrine cells. The activation of the channels mediates inward calcium flow and then promotes glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) secretion. Both in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that CM-CONs effectively regulate glucose homeostasis in diabetic model mice upon NIR light irradiation. This work develops a two-pronged attack strategy for accurately controlling blood glucose homeostasis, holding great prospects in the treatment for diabetes.

Design and synthesis of pseudo-rutaecarpines as potent anti-inflammatory agents via regulating MAPK/NF-κB pathways to relieve inflammation-induced acute liver injury in mice

Pseudo-natural products (PNPs) design strategy provides a great valuable entrance to effectively identify of novel bioactive scaffolds. In this report, novel pseudo-rutaecarpines were designed via the combination of several privileged structure units and 46 target compounds were synthesized. Most of them display moderate to potent inhibitory effect on LPS-induced NO production and low cytotoxicity in RAW264.7 macrophage. The results of the anti-inflammatory efficacy and action mechanism of compounds 7l and 8c indicated that they significantly reduced the release of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α. Further studies revealed that they can strongly inhibit the activation of NF-κB and MAPK signal pathways. The LPS-induced acute liver injury mice model studies not only confirmed their anti-inflammatory efficacy in vivo but also could effectively relieve the liver injury in mice. The results suggest that compounds 7l and 8c might serve as lead compounds to develop therapeutic drugs for treatment of inflammation.

Systemic inflammation as a biomarker of seizure propensity and a target for treatment to reduce seizure propensity

People with diabetes can wear a device that measures blood glucose and delivers just the amount of insulin needed to return the glucose level to within bounds. Currently, people with epilepsy do not have access to an equivalent wearable device that measures a systemic indicator of an impending seizure and delivers a rapidly acting medication or other intervention (e.g., an electrical stimulus) to terminate or prevent a seizure. Given that seizure susceptibility is reliably increased in systemic inflammatory states, we propose a novel closed-loop device where release of a fast-acting therapy is governed by sensors that quantify the magnitude of systemic inflammation. Here, we review the evidence that patients with epilepsy have raised levels of systemic indicators of inflammation than controls, and that some anti-inflammatory drugs have reduced seizure occurrence in animals and humans. We then consider the options of what might be incorporated into a responsive anti-seizure system.

Serinc2 deficiency causes susceptibility to sepsis-associated acute lung injury

Background

Severe sepsis and its subsequent complications cause high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. The lung is one of the most vulnerable organs sensitive to the sepsis-associated inflammatory storm and usually develops into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)/acute lung injury (ALI). The pathogenesis of sepsis-associated ALI is accompanied by coordinated transmembrane signal transduction and subsequent programmed cell death; however, the underlying mechanism remains largely unclear.

Results

Here we find that the expression of serine incorporator 2 (Serinc2), a protein involved in phosphatidylserine synthesis and membrane incorporation, is upregulated in cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced ALI. Furthermore, the Serinc2-knockout (KO) mouse line is generated by the CRISPR-cas9 approach. Compared with wild-type mice, the Serinc2-KO mice exhibit exacerbated ALI-related pathologies after CLP. The expressions of pro-inflammatory factors, including IL1β, IL6, TNFα, and MCP1, are significantly enhanced by Serinc2 deficiency, concurrent with over-activation of STAT3, p38 and ERK pathways. Conversely, Serinc2 overexpression in RAW264.7 cells significantly suppresses the inflammatory responses induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Serinc2 KO aggravates CLP-induced apoptosis as evidenced by increases in TUNEL-positive staining, Bax expression, and cleaved caspase-3 and decreases in BCL-2 expression and Akt phosphorylation, whereas these changes are suppressed by Serinc2 overexpression in LPS-treated RAW264.7 cells. Moreover, the administration of AKTin, an inhibitor of Akt, abolishes the protective effects of Serinc2 overexpression against inflammation and apoptosis.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate a protective role of Serinc2 in the lung through activating the Akt pathway, and provide novel insight into the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced ALI.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12950-022-00306-x.

Identification of potential predictive biomarkers and biological pathways and the correction with immune infiltration in the activation of Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease (CD), a subtype of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), has increasing prevalence in the world. Due to the lack of cure strategy, most patients with CD develop progressive disease companying with a series of serious complications. Therefore, exploring molecular mechanism differences between active and inactive CD will help in the screening of predict markers and therapeutic targets. In this study, we analyzed differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and molecular pathways through between active and inactive CD patients. In addition, the abundance of 22 immune cell types were assessed by using the CIBERSORT. The hub DEGs were screened out by the CytoHubba in Cytoscape, followed by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression. Finally, the clinical predictive model was constructed by binary logistic regression model. The diagnostic efficacy was tested by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and verified in independent datasets. The results showed that there were 137 DEGs between the active and inactive CD. Most of them were involved in regulating the immunity process. In addition, the decreased abundance of CD8 T cells and the increased abundance of M0, M1 macrophages, and neutrophils were closely related to CD activation. CXCL9, C3AR1, IL1B, and TLR4 were the hub gene and can be applied to the prediction of CD activation. Our results provided important targets for the prediction of CD activation and the selection of therapeutic targets.

Mechanistic Understanding of Lung Inflammation: Recent Advances and Emerging Techniques

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening lung injury characterized by an acute inflammatory response in the lung parenchyma. Hence, it is considered as the most appropriate clinical syndrome to study pathogenic mechanisms of lung inflammation. ARDS is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU), while no effective pharmacological treatment exists. It is very important therefore to fully characterize the underlying pathobiology and the related mechanisms, in order to develop novel therapeutic approaches. In vivo and in vitro models are important pre-clinical tools in biological and medical research in the mechanistic and pathological understanding of the majority of diseases. In this review, we will present data from selected experimental models of lung injury/acute lung inflammation, which have been based on clinical disorders that can lead to the development of ARDS and related inflammatory lung processes in humans, including ventilation-induced lung injury (VILI), sepsis, ischemia/reperfusion, smoke, acid aspiration, radiation, transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), influenza, Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae and coronaviruses infection. Data from the corresponding clinical conditions will also be presented. The mechanisms related to lung inflammation that will be covered are oxidative stress, neutrophil extracellular traps, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, surfactant, and water and ion channels. Finally, we will present a brief overview of emerging techniques in the field of omics research that have been applied to ARDS research, encompassing genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, which may recognize factors to help stratify ICU patients at risk, predict their prognosis, and possibly, serve as more specific therapeutic targets.

Immune Mechanism of Epileptogenesis and Related Therapeutic Strategies

Immunologic and neuroinflammatory pathways have been found to play a major role in the pathogenesis of many neurological disorders such as epilepsy, proposing the use of novel therapeutic strategies. In the era of personalized medicine and in the face of the exhaustion of anti-seizure therapeutic resources, it is worth looking at the current or future possibilities that neuroimmunomodulator or anti-inflammatory therapy can offer us in the management of patients with epilepsy. For this reason, we performed a narrative review on the recent advances on the basic epileptogenic mechanisms related to the activation of immunity or neuroinflammation with special attention to current and future opportunities for novel treatments in epilepsy. Neuroinflammation can be considered a universal phenomenon and occurs in structural, infectious, post-traumatic, autoimmune, or even genetically based epilepsies. The emerging research developed in recent years has allowed us to identify the main molecular pathways involved in these processes. These molecular pathways could constitute future therapeutic targets for epilepsy. Different drugs current or in development have demonstrated their capacity to inhibit or modulate molecular pathways involved in the immunologic or neuroinflammatory mechanisms described in epilepsy. Some of them should be tested in the future as possible antiepileptic drugs.

Ononin ameliorates inflammation and cartilage degradation in rat chondrocytes with IL-1β-induced osteoarthritis by downregulating the MAPK and NF-κB pathways

BACKGROUND

Osteoarthritis (OA) treatment aims to improve inflammation and delay cartilage degeneration. However, there is no effective strategy presently available. Ononin, a representative isoflavone glycoside component extracted from natural Chinese herbs, exerts anti-inflammatory and proliferative effects. However, the therapeutic effect of ononin on chondrocyte inflammation remains unclear.

METHODS

In this study, we explored the therapeutic effect and potential mechanism of ononin in OA by establishing an interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β)-induced chondrocyte inflammation model.

RESULTS

Our results verified that ononin alleviated the IL-1β-induced decrease in chondrocyte viability, attenuated the overexpression of the inflammatory factors tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), and simultaneously inhibited the expression of cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM)-degrading enzymes such as matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13). Furthermore, the decomposition of Collagen II protein could be alleviated in the OA model by ononin. Finally, ononin improved chondrocyte inflammation by downregulating the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signalling pathways.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggested that ononin could inhibit the IL-1β-induced proinflammatory response and ECM degradation in chondrocytes by interfering with the abnormal activation of the MAPK and NF-κB pathways, indicating its protective effect against OA.

Novel Knowledge-Based Transcriptomic Profiling of Lipid Lysophosphatidylinositol-Induced Endothelial Cell Activation

To determine whether pro-inflammatory lipid lysophosphatidylinositols (LPIs) upregulate the expressions of membrane proteins for adhesion/signaling and secretory proteins in human aortic endothelial cell (HAEC) activation, we developed an EC biology knowledge-based transcriptomic formula to profile RNA-Seq data panoramically. We made the following primary findings: first, G protein-coupled receptor 55 (GPR55), the LPI receptor, is expressed in the endothelium of both human and mouse aortas, and is significantly upregulated in hyperlipidemia; second, LPIs upregulate 43 clusters of differentiation (CD) in HAECs, promoting EC activation, innate immune trans-differentiation, and immune/inflammatory responses; 72.1% of LPI-upregulated CDs are not induced in influenza virus-, MERS-CoV virus- and herpes virus-infected human endothelial cells, which hinted the specificity of LPIs in HAEC activation; third, LPIs upregulate six types of 640 secretomic genes (SGs), namely, 216 canonical SGs, 60 caspase-1-gasdermin D (GSDMD) SGs, 117 caspase-4/11-GSDMD SGs, 40 exosome SGs, 179 Human Protein Atlas (HPA)-cytokines, and 28 HPA-chemokines, which make HAECs a large secretory organ for inflammation/immune responses and other functions; fourth, LPIs activate transcriptomic remodeling by upregulating 172 transcription factors (TFs), namely, pro-inflammatory factors NR4A3, FOS, KLF3, and HIF1A; fifth, LPIs upregulate 152 nuclear DNA-encoded mitochondrial (mitoCarta) genes, which alter mitochondrial mechanisms and functions, such as mitochondrial organization, respiration, translation, and transport; sixth, LPIs activate reactive oxygen species (ROS) mechanism by upregulating 18 ROS regulators; finally, utilizing the Cytoscape software, we found that three mechanisms, namely, LPI-upregulated TFs, mitoCarta genes, and ROS regulators, are integrated to promote HAEC activation. Our results provide novel insights into aortic EC activation, formulate an EC biology knowledge-based transcriptomic profile strategy, and identify new targets for the development of therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory conditions, immune diseases, organ transplantation, aging, and cancers.

Protease-Activated Receptor-1 Antagonist Protects Against Lung Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Protease-activated receptor (PAR)-1 is a thrombin-activated receptor that plays an essential role in ischemia/reperfusion (IR)-induced acute inflammation. PAR-1 antagonists have been shown to alleviate injuries in various IR models. However, the effect of PAR-1 antagonists on IR-induced acute lung injury (ALI) has not yet been elucidated. This study aimed to investigate whether PAR-1 inhibition could attenuate lung IR injury. Lung IR was induced in an isolated perfused rat lung model. Male rats were treated with the specific PAR-1 antagonist SCH530348 (vorapaxar) or vehicle, followed by ischemia for 40 min and reperfusion for 60 min. To examine the role of PAR-1 and the mechanism of SCH530348 in lung IR injury, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis of lung tissue were performed. In vitro, mouse lung epithelial cells (MLE-12) were treated with SCH530348 or vehicle and subjected to hypoxia-reoxygenation (HR). We found that SCH530348 decreased lung edema and neutrophil infiltration, attenuated thrombin production, reduced inflammatory factors, including cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant-1, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α, mitigated lung cell apoptosis, and downregulated the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways in IR-injured lungs. In addition, SCH530348 prevented HR-induced NF-κB activation and inflammatory chemokine production in MLE12 cells. Our results demonstrate that SCH530348 exerts protective effects by blocking PAR-1 expression and modulating the downstream PI3K, NF-κB and MAPK pathways. These findings indicate that the PAR-1 antagonist protects against IR-induced ALI and is a potential therapeutic candidate for lung protection following IR injury.