Association and in silico studies of ENPP1 gene variants with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a Northern Iranian population

Discovery of Hepatotoxic Equivalent Markers and Mechanism of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. by Metabolomics Coupled with Molecular Docking

Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. (PMT), a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine for treating diseases such as poisoning and white hair, has attracted constant attention due to the frequent occurrence of liver injury incidents. To date, its hepatotoxic equivalent markers (HEMs) and potential hepatotoxic mechanisms are still unclear. In order to clarify the HEMs of PMT and further explore the potential mechanisms of hepatotoxicity, firstly, the chemical constituents in PMT extract were globally characterized, and the fingerprints of PMT extracts were established along with the detection of their hepatotoxicity in vivo. Then, the correlations between hepatotoxic features and component contents were modeled by chemometrics to screen HEMs of PMT, which were then further evaluated. Finally, the hepatotoxic mechanisms of PMT were investigated using liver metabolomics and molecular docking. The results show that the chemical combination of 2,3,5,4-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside (TSG) and emodin-8-O-glucoside (EG) was discovered as the HEMs of PMT through pre-screening and verifying process. Liver metabolomics revealed that PMT caused liver injury by interfering with purine metabolism, which might be related to mitochondrial function disorder and oxidative injury via the up-regulations of xanthosine and xanthine, and the down-regulation of 5' nucleotidase (NT5E) and adenylate kinase 2 (AK2). This study not only found that the HEMs of PMT were TSG and EG, but also clarified that PMT might affect purine metabolism to induce liver injury, which contributed to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of PMT hepatotoxicity.

Deregulation of lncRNA HIST1H2AG-6 and AIM1-3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells is associated with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

Background

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is mainly affected by genetic and environmental factors; however, the correlation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) with T2DM remains largely unknown.

Methods

Microarray analysis was performed to identify the differentially expressed lncRNAs and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in patients with T2DM and healthy controls, and the expression of two candidate lncRNAs (lnc-HIST1H2AG-6 and lnc-AIM1-3) were further validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to measure the degree of association between the two candidate lncRNAs and differentially expressed mRNAs. Furthermore, the KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway and GO (Gene Ontology) enrichment analysis were used to reveal the biological functions of the two candidate lncRNAs. Additionally, multivariate logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed.

Results

The microarray analysis revealed that there were 55 lncRNAs and 36 mRNAs differentially expressed in patients with T2DM compared with healthy controls. Notably, lnc-HIST1H2AG-6 was significantly upregulated and lnc-AIM1-3 was significantly downregulated in patients with T2DM, which was validated in a large-scale qRT-PCR examination (90 controls and 100 patients with T2DM). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient revealed that both lncRNAs were correlated with 36 differentially expressed mRNAs. Furthermore, functional enrichment (KEGG and GO) analysis demonstrated that the two lncRNA-related mRNAs might be involved in multiple biological functions, including cell programmed death, negative regulation of insulin receptor signal, and starch and sucrose metabolism. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that lnc-HIST1H2AG-6 and lnc-AIM1-3 were significantly correlated with T2DM (OR = 5.791 and 0.071, respectively, both P = 0.000). Furthermore, the ROC curve showed that the expression of lnc-HIST1H2AG-6 and lnc-AIM1-3 might be used to differentiate patients with T2DM from healthy controls (area under the ROC curve = 0.664 and 0.769, respectively).

Conclusion

The profiles of lncRNA and mRNA were significantly changed in patients with T2DM. The expression levels of lnc-HIST1H2AG-6 and lnc-AIM1-3 genes were significantly correlated with some features of T2DM, which may be used to distinguish patients with T2DM from healthy controls and may serve as potential novel biomarkers for diagnosis in the future.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12920-021-00994-z.

Single locus and haplotype association of ENPP1 gene variants with the development of retinopathy among type 2 diabetic patients

PURPOSE

The present study was designed to investigate the associations of ENPP1 variants (rs997509, rs1799774, rs1044498 (K121Q), and rs7754561) with diabetic retinopathy (DR) derived from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

METHODS

Total 501 T2DM patients with and without DR were studied as the case and control group, respectively. All four variants were genotyped by TaqMan assay. Statistical analyses were performed through SNPAlyze and SPSS software.

RESULTS

The statistical analysis of clinical characteristics represented significant differences of HbA1c, and fasting blood sugar between two study groups. The results indicated that among four studied variants, rs997509 and rs7754561 were significantly associated with DR under recessive (P = 0.01) and dominant (P = 0.01) models of inheritance, respectively. One haplotype (T-A-T-A) with a frequency higher than 0.05 was associated with the increased risk of DR (P = 0.04). Genotype-phenotype sub-analysis of rs997509 and rs7754561 showed that only rs7754561 had significant associations with systolic and diastolic blood pressures (P = 0.03 and P = 0.01, respectively); more specifically, A allele carriers of rs7754561 were in a higher risk of blood pressures.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggested that rs997509 and rs7754561 were associated with the increased risk of DR among Iranians with T2DM and rs7754561 might be a potential genetic marker for prognosis and diagnosis of DR.