Glucocorticoids and medroxyprogesterone acetate synergize with inflammatory stimuli to selectively upregulate CCL20 transcription

The role of long noncoding ribonucleic acids in the central nervous system injury

Central nervous system (CNS) injury involves complex pathophysiological molecular mechanisms. Long noncoding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) are an important form of RNA that do not encode proteins but take part in the regulation of gene expression and various biological processes. Multitudinous studies have evidenced lncRNAs to have a significant role in the process of progression and recovery of various CNS injuries. Herein, we review the latest findings pertaining to the role of lncRNAs in CNS, both normal and diseased state. We aim to present a comprehensive clinical application prospect of lncRNAs in CNS, and thus, discuss potential strategies of lncRNAs in treating CNS injury.

To investigate the function of age-related genes in different subtypes of asthma based on bioinformatics analysis

Asthma is a heterogeneous airway inflammatory disease that can be classified according to the inflammatory phenotype. The pathogenesis, clinical features, response to hormone therapy, and prognosis of different inflammatory phenotypes differ significantly. This condition also refers to age-related chronic ailments. Here, we intend to identify the function of aging-related genes in different inflammatory phenotypes of asthma using bioinformatic analyses. Initially, the research adopted the GSEA analysis to understand the fundamental mechanisms that govern different inflammatory phenotypes of asthma pathogenesis and use the CIBERSORT algorithm to assess the immune cell composition. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of eosinophilic asthma (EA), neutrophilic asthma (NA), and paucigranulocytic asthma (PGA) were identified through the limma R package. Aging-related genes, screened from multiple databases, were intersected with DEGs of asthma to obtain the asthma-aging-related DEGs. Then, the GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses showed that the NA- and EA-aging-related DEGs are involved in the various cytokine-mediated signaling pathways. PPI network and correlation analysis were performed to identify and evaluate the correlation of the hub genes. Further, the clinical characteristics of asthma-aging-related DEGs were explored through ROC analysis. 3 and 12 aging-related DEGs in EA and NA patients show high diagnostic accuracy, respectively (AUC >0.7). This study provided valuable insights into aging-related gene therapy for phenotype-specific asthma. Moreover, the study suggests that effective interventions against asthma may operate by disrupting the detrimental cycle of "aging induces metabolic diseases, which exacerbate aging".

The Glucocorticoid Receptor: Isoforms, Functions, and Contribution to Glucocorticoid Sensitivity

Glucocorticoids exert pleiotropic effects on all tissues to regulate cellular and metabolic homeostasis. Synthetic forms are used therapeutically in a wide range of conditions for their anti-inflammatory benefits, at the cost of dose and duration-dependent side effects. Significant variability occurs between tissues, disease states, and individuals with regard to both the beneficial and deleterious effects. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is the site of action for these hormones and a vast body of work has been conducted understanding its function. Traditionally, it was thought that the anti-inflammatory benefits of glucocorticoids were mediated by transrepression of pro-inflammatory transcription factors, while the adverse metabolic effects resulted from direct transactivation. This canonical understanding of the GR function has been brought into question over the past 2 decades with advances in the resolution of scientific techniques, and the discovery of multiple isoforms of the receptor present in most tissues. Here we review the structure and function of the GR, the nature of the receptor isoforms, and the contribution of the receptor to glucocorticoid sensitivity, or resistance in health and disease.