Celecoxib-induced inhibition of neurogenesis in fetal frontal cortex is attenuated by curcumin via Wnt/β-catenin pathway

Identification of Celecoxib-Targeted Proteins Using Label-Free Thermal Proteome Profiling on Rat Hippocampus

Celecoxib, or Celebrex, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is one of the most common medicines for treating inflammatory diseases. Recently, it has been shown that celecoxib is associated with implications in complex diseases, such as Alzheimer disease and cancer as well as with cardiovascular risk assessment and toxicity, suggesting that celecoxib may affect multiple unknown targets. In this project, we detected targets of celecoxib within the nervous system using a label-free thermal proteome profiling method. First, proteins of the rat hippocampus were treated with multiple drug concentrations and temperatures. Next, we separated the soluble proteins from the denatured and sedimented total protein load by ultracentrifugation. Subsequently, the soluble proteins were analyzed by nano-liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to determine the identity of the celecoxib-targeted proteins based on structural changes by thermal stability variation of targeted proteins toward higher solubility in the higher temperatures. In the analysis of the soluble protein extract at 67°C, 44 proteins were uniquely detected in drug-treated samples out of all 478 identified proteins at this temperature. Ras-associated binding protein 4a, 1 out of these 44 proteins, has previously been reported as one of the celecoxib off targets in the rat central nervous system. Furthermore, we provide more molecular details through biomedical enrichment analysis to explore the potential role of all detected proteins in the biologic systems. We show that the determined proteins play a role in the signaling pathways related to neurodegenerative disease-and cancer pathways. Finally, we fill out molecular supporting evidence for using celecoxib toward the drug-repurposing approach by exploring drug targets. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This study determined 44 off-target proteins of celecoxib, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and one of the most common medicines for treating inflammatory diseases. It shows that these proteins play a role in the signaling pathways related to neurodegenerative disease and cancer pathways. Finally, the study provides molecular supporting evidence for using celecoxib toward the drug-repurposing approach by exploring drug targets.

The Multifaced Actions of Curcumin in Pregnancy Outcome

Curcumin, also known as diferuloylmethane, is the main polyphenolic substance present in the rhizomes of Curcuma longa L. This plant showed many beneficial effects and has been used since ancient times for both food and pharmaceutical purposes. Due to its pleiotropic functions, curcumin consumption in the human diet has become very common thanks also to the fact that this natural compound is considered quite safe as it does not have serious side effects. Its functions as an anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, anti-toxicant, anti-apoptotic, and anti-diabetic compound are already known and widely demonstrated. There are numerous studies concerning its effects on various human pathologies including cancer, diabetes and arthritis while the studies on curcumin during pregnancy have been performed only in animal models. Data concerning the role of curcumin as anti-inflammatory compound suggest a possible use of curcumin in managing pregnancy complications such as Preeclampsia (PE), Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR), PreTerm Birth (PTB), and exposure to toxic agents and pathogens. The aim of this review is to present data to support the possible use of curcumin in clinical trials on human gestation complications.

Curcumin: Could This Compound Be Useful in Pregnancy and Pregnancy-Related Complications?

Curcumin, the main polyphenol contained in turmeric root (Curcuma longa), has played a significant role in medicine for centuries. The growing interest in plant-derived substances has led to increased consumption of them also in pregnancy. The pleiotropic and multi-targeting actions of curcumin have made it very attractive as a health-promoting compound. In spite of the beneficial effects observed in various chronic diseases in humans, limited and fragmentary information is currently available about curcumin’s effects on pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications. It is known that immune-metabolic alterations occurring during pregnancy have consequences on both maternal and fetal tissues, leading to short- and long-term complications. The reported anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitoxicant, neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, antiapoptotic, antiangiogenic, anti-hypertensive, and antidiabetic properties of curcumin appear to be encouraging, not only for the management of pregnancy-related disorders, including gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), preeclampsia (PE), depression, preterm birth, and fetal growth disorders but also to contrast damage induced by natural and chemical toxic agents. The current review summarizes the latest data, mostly obtained from animal models and in vitro studies, on the impact of curcumin on the molecular mechanisms involved in pregnancy pathophysiology, with the aim to shed light on the possible beneficial and/or adverse effects of curcumin on pregnancy outcomes.

Curcumin Therapeutic Modulation of the Wnt Signaling Pathway

Curcumin, isolated from the rhizome of Curcuma longa, is one of the most extensively studied phytochemicals. This natural compound has a variety of pharmacological effects including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, cardio-protective, hepato-protective and anti-diabetic. Wnt signaling pathway, one of the potential targets of curcumin through upregulation and/or downregulation, plays a significant role in many diseases, even in embryogenesis and development of various organs and systems. In order to exert an anti-tumor activity in the organism, curcumin seems to inhibit the Wnt pathway. The downstream mediators of Wnt signaling pathway such as c-Myc and cyclin D1 are also modified by curcumin. This review demonstrates how curcumin influences the Wnt signaling pathway and is beneficial for the treatment of neurological disorders (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases), cancers (melanoma, lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, endothelial carcinoma, gastric carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma) and other diseases, such as diabetes mellitus or bone disorders.

Neural Stem Cells and Cannabinoids in the Spotlight as Potential Therapy for Epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the most common brain diseases worldwide, having a huge burden in society. The main hallmark of epilepsy is the occurrence of spontaneous recurrent seizures, having a tremendous impact on the lives of the patients and of their relatives. Currently, the therapeutic strategies are mostly based on the use of antiepileptic drugs, and because several types of epilepsies are of unknown origin, a high percentage of patients are resistant to the available pharmacotherapy, continuing to experience seizures overtime. Therefore, the search for new drugs and therapeutic targets is highly important. One key aspect to be targeted is the aberrant adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) derived from Neural Stem Cells (NSCs). Indeed, targeting seizure-induced AHN may reduce recurrent seizures and shed some light on the mechanisms of disease. The endocannabinoid system is a known modulator of AHN, and due to the known endogenous antiepileptic properties, it is an interesting candidate for the generation of new antiepileptic drugs. However, further studies and clinical trials are required to investigate the putative mechanisms by which cannabinoids can be used to treat epilepsy. In this manuscript, we will review how cannabinoid-induced modulation of NSCs may promote neural plasticity and whether these drugs can be used as putative antiepileptic treatment.

In vitro cytotoxicity of montelukast in HAPI and SH-SY5Y cells

Montelukast is a cysteinyl leukotriene (CysLT) receptor antagonist with efficacy against a variety of diseases, including asthma and inflammation-related conditions. However, various neuropsychiatric events (NEs) suspected to be related to montelukast have been reported recently, with limited understanding on their association and underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to investigate whether montelukast can induce neuroinflammation and neurotoxicity in microglial HAPI cells and neural SH-SY5Y cells. The present study also compared the effects of montelukast with a 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor (zileuton) and a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor (celecoxib) to better understand modulation of related pathways. HAPI or SH-SY5Y cells were treated with the indicated drugs (3.125 μM-100 μM) for 24 h to investigate drug-induced neuroinflammation and neurotoxicity. Montelukast induced cytotoxicity in HAPI cells (50-100 μM), accompanied with caspase-3/7 activation, prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) release, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Whilst both montelukast and zileuton down-regulated CysLT release in HAPI cells, zileuton did not significantly affect cell viability or inflammatory and oxidative factors. Celecoxib decreased HAPI cell viability (6.25-100 μM), accompanied with increasing caspase-3/7 activation and ROS production, but in contrast to montelukast increased CysLT release and decreased PGE₂ production. Similar to observations in HAPI cells, both montelukast and celecoxib (50-100 μM) but not zileuton produced toxicity in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Similarly, CM from HAPI cells treated with either montelukast or zileuton produced toxicity in SH-SY5Y cells. The results of the current study show the capability of montelukast to directly induce toxicity and inflammation in HAPI cells, possibly through the involvement of PGE₂ and ROS, and toxicity in undifferentiated SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. The current study highlights the importance of consideration between benefit and risk of montelukast usage and provides references for future investigation on decreasing montelukast-related NEs.

Aberrant canonical Wnt signaling: Phytochemical based modulation

BACKGROUND

Wnt signaling pathway plays a major role during development like gastrulation, axis formation, organ development and organization of body plan development. Wnt signaling aberration has been linked with various disease conditions like osteoporosis, colon cancer, hair follicle tumor, Leukemia, and Alzheimer's disease. Phytochemicals like flavonoid, glycosides, polyphenols, have been reported to directly target the markers of Wnt signaling in different disease models.

PURPOSE

The study deals in detail about the different phytochemical targeting key players of Wnt signaling pathway in diseases like Cancer, Osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease. We have focused on the Pharmacological basis of disease alleviation by phytochemical specifically targeting the Wnt signaling markers in this study.

METHODS

The study focused on the published articles from the preclinical rodent and invitro cell line studies related to Wnt signaling and Phytochemicals related to Cancer, Alzheimer's and Osteoporosis. The electronic databases Scopus, Web of Science and Pubmed database were used for the systematic search of literatures from 2005 up to 2019 using keywords Canonical Wnt signaling pathway, Cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Osteoporosis, Phytochemicals. The focus was to identify the target specific modulation of Wnt signaling mediated by phytochemicals.

RESULTS

Approximately 30 phytochemicals of different class have been identified to modulate Wnt signaling pathway acting through Axin, β-catenin translocation, GSK-3β, AKT, Wif-1 in various experimental studies. The down regulation of Wnt signaling is observed in Cancer mostly colorectal cancer, breast cancer mediated through mutations in APC and Axin genes. Different class of Phytochemicals such as flavonoid, glycosides, polyphenol, alkaloids etc. have been found to target Wnt signaling markers and alleviate Cancer. Similarly, Up regulation of Wnt signaling has been reported in Osteoporosis and neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer's disease.

CONCLUSION

This review highlights the possibility of the Phytochemicals to target Wnt markers and its potential to either activate or deactivate the Wnt signaling pathway. It also describes the challenges in proper targeting of Wnt signaling and the potential risk and consequences of either up regulation or down regulation of the signaling pathway. This article highlights the possibility of Wnt signaling pathway as a therapeutic option in different diseases.

A Transcriptome Analysis: Various Reasons of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Caused by Acute Toxoplasma gondii Infection

Background

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular parasite, which can affect the pregnancy outcomes in infected females by damaging the uterus, and the intrauterine environment as well as and the hypothalamus resulting in hormonal imbalance. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the parasite-induced poor pregnancy outcomes and the key genes regulating these mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the gene expression in the mouse’s uterus following experimentally-induced acute infection with T. gondii RH strain. Three groups of female mice were intraperitoneally injected with tachyzoites as follow; 3 days before pregnancy (FBD6), after pregnancy (FAD6), and after implantation (FID8) as the experimental groups. Another corresponding three groups served as control, were injected with normal saline at the same time. Transcriptome analysis of the total RNA extracted from both infected and non-infected mouse uterus samples was performed using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq).

Results

The three experimental groups (FBD6, FAD6, and FID8) had a total of 4,561, 2,345, and 2,997 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) compared to the controls. The significantly upregulated and downregulated DEGs were 2,571 and 1,990 genes in FBD6, 1,042 and 1,303 genes in FAD6 and 1,162 and 1,835 genes in FID8 group, respectively. The analysis of GO annotation, and KEGG pathway showed that DEGs were mainly involved in anatomical structure development, transport, cell differentiation, embryo development, hormone biosynthetic process, signal transduction, immune system process, phagosome, pathways in cancer, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathways.

Conclusion

T. gondii infection can induce global transcriptomic changes in the uterus that may cause pregnancy hypertension, destruct the intrauterine environment, and hinder the normal development of placenta and embryo. Our results may help to understand the molecular mechanisms of the acute T. gondii infection, which could promote the development of new therapeutics or prophylactics for toxoplasmosis in pregnancy.

Regulation of Neural Stem Cell Fate by Natural Products

Neural stem cells (NSCs) can proliferate and differentiate into multiple cell types that constitute the nervous system. NSCs can be derived from developing fetuses, embryonic stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells. NSCs provide a good platform to screen drugs for neurodegenerative diseases and also have potential applications in regenerative medicine. Natural products have long been used as compounds to develop new drugs. In this review, natural products that control NSC fate and induce their differentiation into neurons or glia are discussed. These phytochemicals enable promising advances to be made in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Bioactivity, Health Benefits, and Related Molecular Mechanisms of Curcumin: Current Progress, Challenges, and Perspectives

Curcumin is a principal curcuminoid of turmeric (Curcuma longa), which is commonly used as a spice in cooking and a yellow pigment in the food processing industry. Recent studies have demonstrated that curcumin has a variety of biological activities and pharmacological performances, providing protection and promotion of human health. In addition to presenting an overview of the gut metabolism of curcumin, this paper reviews the current research progress on its versatile bioactivity, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-regulatory activities, and also intensively discusses its health benefits, including the protective or preventive effects on cancers and diabetes, as well as the liver, nervous system, and cardiovascular systems, highlighting the potential molecular mechanisms. Besides, the beneficial effects of curcumin on human are further stated based on clinical trials. Considering that there is still a debate on the beneficial effects of curcumin, we also discuss related challenges and prospects. Overall, curcumin is a promising ingredient of novel functional foods, with protective efficacy in preventing certain diseases. We hope this comprehensive and updated review will be helpful for promoting human-based studies to facilitate its use in human health and diseases in the future.

Stem Cells as Potential Targets of Polyphenols in Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and multiple sclerosis are major neurodegenerative diseases, which are characterized by the accumulation of abnormal pathogenic proteins due to oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired autophagy, and pathogens, leading to neurodegeneration and behavioral deficits. Herein, we reviewed the utility of plant polyphenols in regulating proliferation and differentiation of stem cells for inducing brain self-repair in AD and multiple sclerosis. Firstly, we discussed the genetic, physiological, and environmental factors involved in the pathophysiology of both the disorders. Next, we reviewed various stem cell therapies available and how they have proved useful in animal models of AD and multiple sclerosis. Lastly, we discussed how polyphenols utilize the potential of stem cells, either complementing their therapeutic effects or stimulating endogenous and exogenous neurogenesis, against these diseases. We suggest that polyphenols could be a potential candidate for stem cell therapy against neurodegenerative disorders.

Abd El-Aziz G, N. Mustafa H, El-Fark M, Mansour Tashkandi J, Hassan Alzahrani A, Mal A, AboRass M, Halim Deifalla A. Beneficial Effects of Curcumin in Maternal and Fetal Oxidative Stress and Brain Damage Induced by Gestational Lead Administration

This study was planned to explore the protective role of curcumin (Cur) against maternal and fetal oxidative stress and cerebral damage induced by lead (Pb) during pregnancy. Positively pregnant female rats were divided into seven groups: control group, Cur group (300 mg/kg of Cur/b.wt.), DMSO group (50% DMSO), two Pb-treated groups (exposed to 160 and 320 mg/kg b.wt./day of Pb acetate, respectively), and two groups treated with both Pb and Cur (exposed to Pb as previous groups together with 300 mg/kg b.wt./day of Cur). Treatments through oral gavage once a day started from gestation day 1 (GD1) till day 20 (GD20), where the mother rats of different experimental groups were sacrificed to obtain the fetuses. Different chemical parameters were assessed. Brain specimens of mother and fetal groups were processed with examination. The results displayed that Pb administration to pregnant rats resulted in a dose-dependent toxicity for both mothers and fetuses. Also, there was a significant rise in lipid peroxidation and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities in the brains of the different Pb-treated groups. The histological examination of the brain of treated dams and fetuses showed marked alterations. Co-treatment of Cur along with Pb caused a significant decrease in Pb levels as compared with those treated with Pb alone, improving the oxidative condition with amelioration of the brain’s histopathological changes. Co-administration of Cur could have ameliorative effect against Pb-induced neurotoxicity through the reduction of oxidative stress and reversal of histopathological changes.