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Li X, Yu M, Zhao Q, Yu Y. Prospective therapeutics for intestinal and hepatic fibrosis. Bioeng Transl Med 2023; 8:e10579. [PMID: 38023697 PMCID: PMC10658571 DOI: 10.1002/btm2.10579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2023] [Revised: 06/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Currently, there are no effective therapies for intestinal and hepatic fibrosis representing a considerable unmet need. Breakthroughs in pathogenesis have accelerated the development of anti-fibrotic therapeutics in recent years. Particularly, with the development of nanotechnology, the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract and inaccessible microenvironment of fibrotic lesions seem to be no longer considered a great barrier to the use of anti-fibrotic drugs. In this review, we comprehensively summarize recent preclinical and clinical studies on intestinal and hepatic fibrosis. It is found that the targets for preclinical studies on intestinal fibrosis is varied, which could be divided into molecular, cellular, and tissues level, although little clinical trials are ongoing. Liver fibrosis clinical trials have focused on improving metabolic disorders, preventing the activation and proliferation of hepatic stellate cells, promoting the degradation of collagen, and reducing inflammation and cell death. At the preclinical stage, the therapeutic strategies have focused on drug targets and delivery systems. At last, promising remedies to the current challenges are based on multi-modal synergistic and targeted delivery therapies through mesenchymal stem cells, nanotechnology, and gut-liver axis providing useful insights into anti-fibrotic strategies for clinical use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Li
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The First Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Drug Evaluation and Clinical Research, The First Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
- Institute of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmaceutical SciencesZhejiang UniversityHangzhouChina
| | - Mengli Yu
- Department of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineYiwuChina
| | - Qingwei Zhao
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The First Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Drug Evaluation and Clinical Research, The First Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Yang Yu
- College of Pharmaceutical SciencesSouthwest UniversityChongqingChina
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Ma X, Liu Z, Ilyas I, Little PJ, Kamato D, Sahebka A, Chen Z, Luo S, Zheng X, Weng J, Xu S. GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs): cardiovascular actions and therapeutic potential. Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17:2050-2068. [PMID: 34131405 PMCID: PMC8193264 DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.59965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is closely associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including atherosclerosis, hypertension and heart failure. Some anti-diabetic medications are linked with an increased risk of weight gain or hypoglycemia which may reduce the efficacy of the intended anti-hyperglycemic effects of these therapies. The recently developed receptor agonists for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1RAs), stimulate insulin secretion and reduce glycated hemoglobin levels without having side effects such as weight gain and hypoglycemia. In addition, GLP1-RAs demonstrate numerous cardiovascular protective effects in subjects with or without diabetes. There have been several cardiovascular outcomes trials (CVOTs) involving GLP-1RAs, which have supported the overall cardiovascular benefits of these drugs. GLP1-RAs lower plasma lipid levels and lower blood pressure (BP), both of which contribute to a reduction of atherosclerosis and reduced CVD. GLP-1R is expressed in multiple cardiovascular cell types such as monocyte/macrophages, smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, and cardiomyocytes. Recent studies have indicated that the protective properties against endothelial dysfunction, anti-inflammatory effects on macrophages and the anti-proliferative action on smooth muscle cells may contribute to atheroprotection through GLP-1R signaling. In the present review, we describe the cardiovascular effects and underlying molecular mechanisms of action of GLP-1RAs in CVOTs, animal models and cultured cells, and address how these findings have transformed our understanding of the pharmacotherapy of T2DM and the prevention of CVD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoxuan Ma
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
| | - Zhenghong Liu
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
| | - Iqra Ilyas
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
| | - Peter J Little
- Sunshine Coast Health Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Birtinya, QLD 4575, Australia.,School of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence, the University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland 4102, Australia
| | - Danielle Kamato
- School of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence, the University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland 4102, Australia
| | - Amirhossein Sahebka
- Halal Research Center of IRI, FDA, Tehran, Iran.,Biotechnology Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Zhengfang Chen
- Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Changshu No.1 People's Hospital, Changshu 215500, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Sihui Luo
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
| | - Xueying Zheng
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
| | - Jianping Weng
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
| | - Suowen Xu
- Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230001, China
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LncLocation: Efficient Subcellular Location Prediction of Long Non-Coding RNA-Based Multi-Source Heterogeneous Feature Fusion. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:ijms21197271. [PMID: 33019721 PMCID: PMC7582431 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21197271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2020] [Revised: 09/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies uncover that subcellular location of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can provide significant information on its function. Due to the lack of experimental data, the number of lncRNAs is very limited, experimentally verified subcellular localization, and the numbers of lncRNAs located in different organelle are wildly imbalanced. The prediction of subcellular location of lncRNAs is actually a multi-classification small sample imbalance problem. The imbalance of data results in the poor recognition effect of machine learning models on small data subsets, which is a puzzling and challenging problem in the existing research. In this study, we integrate multi-source features to construct a sequence-based computational tool, lncLocation, to predict the subcellular location of lncRNAs. Autoencoder is used to enhance part of the features, and the binomial distribution-based filtering method and recursive feature elimination (RFE) are used to filter some of the features. It improves the representation ability of data and reduces the problem of unbalanced multi-classification data. By comprehensive experiments on different feature combinations and machine learning models, we select the optimal features and classifier model scheme to construct a subcellular location prediction tool, lncLocation. LncLocation can obtain an 87.78% accuracy using 5-fold cross validation on the benchmark data, which is higher than the state-of-the-art tools, and the classification performance, especially for small class sets, is improved significantly.
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Mohamed DI, Khairy E, Khedr SA, Habib EK, Elayat WM, El-Kharashi OA. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) alleviates the peripheral neuropathy associated with liver cirrhosis via modulation of neural MEG3/PAR2/ NF-ҡB axis. Neurochem Int 2019; 132:104602. [PMID: 31751619 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuint.2019.104602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2019] [Revised: 11/07/2019] [Accepted: 11/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM Oxidative stress (OS) is accused in pathogenesis of many diseases, including liver cirrhosis by many mechanisms. One of them is the disturbance of long non coding maternally expressed 3 (MEG3)/protease activated receptor 2 (PAR2) downstream pathway. We aimed to investigate the role of this axis in cirrhotic neuropathy and whether an antioxidant compound such as N-acetylcysteine (NAC) could improve the peripheral nerve function through repression of MEG3/PAR2. METHODS Thirty Wistar rats were used and divided into 5 groups; naive, thiacetamide (TAA) (200 mg/kg 3 times/week. i.p. for 8 weeks) and TAA+NAC (50 or 100 or 200 mg/kg/day) groups. Von Frey (VF) test for mechanical nociceptive responses, hepatic& neural MEG3, NF-ҡB and neural PAR2 expression by PCR, histological studies for liver and sciatic nerve together with the dorsopedal skin thickness were done. RESULTS TAA induced significant decrease in liver function, negative VF test, an increase in the expression of hepatic& neural MEG3, NF-ҡB and neural PAR2. The histological studies showed cirrhotic changes with atrophy of the sciatic nerve and the dorsal skin. NAC improved the liver function together with reversal of the neural: functional, biochemical and histological changes in a dose dependent manner. CONCLUSIONS NAC could improve the peripheral neuropathy in cirrhotic rat through suppression of MEG3/PAR2 expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doaa I Mohamed
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
| | - Eman Khairy
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
| | - Sara A Khedr
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
| | - Eman K Habib
- Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
| | - Wael M Elayat
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
| | - Omnyah A El-Kharashi
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
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