Increased level of plasma salusin-α and salusin-β in patients with multiple sclerosis

Serum salusin levels in diarrhea- and constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome

Objective

Inflammation and immunity play major roles in the etiopathogenesis of functional intestinal disorders. The salusins that were identified in this study are important because of their ease of collection, sensitivity and reliability. For that reason, the aim of this study was to analyze the importance of the levels of salusin in the blood, an inflammation-related parameter, in the diagnosis and prediction of irritable bowel disease.

Methodology

The study participants included 28 diagnosed with constipation-predominant IBS, 29 (34.1%) diagnosed with diarrhea-predominant IBS (D-IBS), and 28 (32.9%) controls. Enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA) method has been used for the measurement of salusin levels.

Results

Participants were 50 (58.8%) female and 35 (41.2%) male. The serum levels of salusin-α were substantially reduced in the diarrhea-predominant IBS group vs controls. There was also no major difference in the levels of salusin between the constipation-predominant-IBS and the diarrhea-predominant IBS group.

Conclusion

A major prognostic relationship was found between the level of salusins and the subgroup of D-IBS. It is well known that salusins have been related to inflammatory processes and oxidative injury in previous studies. The relationship between salusin and gastrointestinal diseases should be further investigated. Low-grade submucosal intestinal inflammation is also associated with irritable bowel syndrome. It is our belief that salusins may be useful in diagnosing, predicting or treating IBS.

Relationship between salusin beta levels and the severity of acute pancreatitis in patients

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to evaluate the significance of serum salusin beta (SAL-β) levels in predicting the severity of acute pancreatitis (AP) in patients diagnosed with this condition and to assess its relationship with disease and prognosis.

METHODS

Sixty-four patients between 18 and 100 years of age diagnosed with AP, were included in the study. Patients were categorized into 3 groups based on the Revised Atlanta Classification: mild, moderate, and severe AP. Eighteen healthy adults were included as the control group. Sex, age, height, weight, presence of additional diseases, laboratory results, imaging findings, levels of white blood cells, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, mean platelet volume, amylase, lipase, sensitive C-reactive protein, sedimentation, and serum SAL-β were measured and recorded. SAL-β levels were reevaluated on the third day of hospitalization.

RESULTS

The average age of the patients included in the study was 62.66 ± 17.67. Gallstones were present in 64.1% of the patients. The difference in the SAL-β averages on the 1st and 3rd days was statistically significant (P < .05). On the first day, the SAL-β averages of those with severe Atlanta scores were higher than those with mild and moderate Atlanta severity. Similarly, on the third day, the SAL-β averages of those with severe Atlanta scores were higher than those with mild and moderate Atlanta severity. According to receiver operating characteristic analysis using the Youden index, the cutoff value for SAL-β for severe pancreatitis was 178.8 pg/mL on the 1st day and 207.5 pg/mL on the 3rd day.

CONCLUSION

SAL-β can be used to detect and monitor severe pancreatitis. Further extensive clinical studies with larger case series are needed.

The relationship of salusins with Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, and acute ischemic stroke: A preliminary study

Neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis play important roles in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson's Disease (PD), and Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS). Salusin-α and salusin-β peptides, which were shown to be present in many tissues, including the central nervous system, were also shown to be associated with apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress. In the present study, the relationship between Salusin-α and salusin-β peptides and AD, PD, and AIS were investigated. A total of 179 people were included in the present study, including 46 AD, 44 PD, 42 AIS, and 47 controls. Plasma Salusin-α and salusin-β levels were measured with the ELISA Method. The plasma salusin-β levels of AD, PD, and AIS patients were lower than the control group at significant levels (p < 0.05). It was also found that there were correlations between salusin-α and salusin-β levels and age, triglyceride, LDL-c, total cholesterol, and hemoglobin levels. In this study, we found that salusin- β, an endogenous neuropeptide, was associated with AD, PD and AIS. The low level of salusin-β in these diseases in which neuronal damage occurs may be related to the neuroprotective properties of this endogenous peptide. Further studies are needed to fully understand the relationship between salusin-β and the pathophysiology of these diseases.

Serum salusin-α and -β levels in patients with parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND

The etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is not well known and there is increasing evidence that oxidative stress also plays an important role in its pathogenesis. Salusins alpha (salusin-α) and beta (salusin-β) affect the central nervous system, vasculature, and kidneys to increase the inflammatory response in endothelial cells, stimulate oxidative stress, and increase monocyte-endothelial adhesion. Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress play roles in the etiopathogenesis of PD.

PURPOSE

To investigate whether salusin-α and -β are related to PD and whether they are correlated with the development of atherosclerosis, body mass index, disease duration, and the Parkinson's Hoehn and Yahr stage.

RESULTS

The low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol, and salusin-β levels were significantly lower and age was significantly higher in Parkinson patients compared to healthy controls (ρ < 0.005). We found a negative linear correlation between salusin-β and the Hoehn and Yahr stage (ρ < 0.001, r = -0.515) in the patients.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a relationship between salusin-β and PD and a correlation between the salusin-β levels and Parkinson's stage. A possible underlying disease mechanism is an increase in oxidative stress and decrease in neuroprotective effects due to low salusin-β levels. Therefore, the effects of salusin-β in treating Parkinson disease should be evaluated. Further studies are needed to understand the effects of salusin-β treatment on preventing or slowing the course of PD.

Intracerebroventricular salusin-β infusion to rats increases hypothalamus-pituitary-testicular axis hormones

Salusin-β (Sal-β), which originates from preprosalusin, is a multifunctional hormone with a peptide structure. Sal-β exists in the hypothalamus and can stimulate the pituitary gland. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of Sal-β on hormones that play roles in the male reproductive system. Forty male Wistar Albino rats were used in the study. No infusions were performed on the control group, and infusions were applied to the infusion groups (artificial cerebrospinal fluid to the sham group, 2 and 20 nM Sal-β to the experimental group) through intracerebroventricular infusion for 7 days at 10 μl/hour rate. The animals were decapitated after 7 days of infusion; and the hypothalamus, testicles, and blood tissue samples were collected. The gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) mRNA levels were determined from the hypothalamus tissues by using the Real Time-PCR Method, and the serum luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and testosterone levels were determined using the ELISA method. Also, Hematoxylin-Eosin Staining Method was used for histopathological evaluations in the testicle tissues. As a result, Sal-β infusion increased GnRH mRNA levels in hypothalamus tissues (p < 0.05) besides, serum LH, FSH, and testosterone levels of the rats were higher at significant levels following Sal-β infusion compared to the control and sham group (p < 0.05). In the histological examination of the testicle tissues, Sal-β application was found to decrease the seminiferous tubule diameter and germinal epithelial thickness (p < 0.05). This evidence is the first, indicating that Sal-β, which is administered to male rats with central infusion, stimulates hypothalamus and pituitary tissues, and causes increased secretion of male reproductive hormones.

Salusin- is superior to salusin- as a marker for evaluating coronary atherosclerosis

Objective

This study was performed to evaluate the interaction effect of salusin-α and salusin-β on coronary artery injury or stenosis.

Methods

The salusin-α and salusin-β concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 256 patients who underwent coronary angiography for chest pain, and coronary artery stenosis was assessed by the SYNTAX scoring system. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between variables and coronary artery stenosis. The interaction of salusin-α and salusin-β on coronary artery stenosis was further explored by multiple linear regression.

Results

The model goodness of fit (R) for the interaction effect of salusin-α and salusin-β on coronary artery stenosis was 0.863, and the adjusted R value revealed that the interaction could explain 74.3% of the variation in SYNTAX scores. The F-statistic exceeded F_0.05 (3.031485935) and P < 0.001, further showing that salusin-α and salusin-β had a significant interaction effect on coronary artery stenosis. The standard coefficient for salusin-β (0.797) was higher than that for salusin-α (−0.367, indicating an inhibitory effect), showing that salusin-β had a greater effect on coronary artery stenosis.

Conclusions

Salusin-β, a potential marker for assessing coronary atherosclerosis, was superior to salusin-α, contributing to our understanding of the etiology of coronary artery stenosis.

Anti‑inflammatory effect of salusin‑β knockdown on LPS‑activated alveolar macrophages via NF‑κB inhibition and HO‑1 activation

Inflammation of alveolar macrophages is the primary pathological factor leading to acute lung injury (ALI), and NF-κB activation and HO-1 inhibition are widely involved in inflammation. Salusin-β has been reported to contribute to the progression of the inflammatory response, but whether salusin-β could regulate inflammation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI remains unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the role of salusin-β in LPS-induced ALI and to uncover the potential underlying mechanisms. Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to LPS administration, and then pathological manifestations of lung tissues, inflammatory cytokines levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and expression of salusin-β in macrophages of lung tissues were assessed. NR8383 cells with or without salusin-β knockdown were treated with LPS, and then the concentration of inflammatory cytokines, and the expression of high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), NF-κB signaling molecules and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) levels were detected. The results showed that LPS caused injury of lung tissues, increased the levels of proinflammatory cytokines in BALF, and led to higher expression of salusin-β or macrophages in lung tissues of rats. In vitro experiments, LPS also upregulated salusin-β expression in NR8383 cells. Knockdown of salusin-β using short hairpin (sh)RNA inhibited the LPS-induced generation of inflammatory cytokines. LPS also enhanced HMGB1, phosphorylated (p)-IκB and p-p65 expression, but reduced HO-1 expression in both lung tissues and NR8383 cells, which were instead inhibited by the transfection of sh-salusin-β. In addition, knockdown of HO-1 using shRNA reversed the inhibitory effect of sh-salusin-β on the LPS-induced generation of inflammatory cytokines, activation of NF-κB signaling and inactivation of HO-1. In conclusion, this study suggested that knockdown of salusin-β may inhibit LPS-induced inflammation in alveolar macrophages by blocking NF-κB signaling and upregulating HO-1 expression.