Molecular docking and mechanisms of fusaric acid induced mitochondrial sirtuin aberrations in glycolytically and oxidatively poised human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells

Analysis of the Expression and Prognostic Value of SIRTs in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Purpose

This study contributes to the evolving understanding of the pivotal involvement of Sirtuins (SIRTs) in various human cancers, with a particular focus on elucidating their expression patterns and clinical relevance within the context of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The investigation involves a comprehensive analysis of mRNA expression and prognostic implications associated with distinct SIRTs in HCC.

Patients and Methods

Initial data pertaining to SIRT expression in HCC patients were collated from publicly accessible databases. Subsequently, the expression levels of select members of the SIRT family were validated using clinicopathological specimens from HCC patients. Additionally, HCC tissue microarray was employed to scrutinize the correlation between SIRT7 expression and HCC prognosis.

Results

The findings indicated a substantial upregulation of SIRT2, SIRT3, SIRT4, SIRT6, and SIRT7 in HCC tissues. Survival analysis underscored a pronounced association between elevated mRNA levels of SIRT3, SIRT6, and SIRT7 and an adverse prognosis for HCC patients. Particularly, SIRT7 emerged as a potential independent risk factor for poor prognosis in HCC patients. Examination of the HCC tissue microarray revealed heightened expression of SIRT7 in 68 cases (54.8%) of HCC tissues. Multivariate analysis established high SIRT7 expression as an independent risk factor for diminished Disease-Free Survival (DFS) and Overall Survival (OS) in HCC patients.

Conclusion

The aberrant expression of SIRT7 presents itself may be as a novel biomarker for predicting the prognosis of HCC patients.

The Role of HSP90 and TRAP1 Targets on Treatment in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the predominant form of liver cancer and arises due to dysregulation of the cell cycle control machinery. Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) and mitochondrial HSP90, also referred to as TRAP1 are important critical chaperone target receptors for early diagnosis and targeting HCC. Both HSP90 and TRAP1 expression was found to be higher in HCC patients. Hence, the importance of HSP90 and TRAP1 inhibitors mechanism and mitochondrial targeted delivery of those inhibitors function is widely studied. This review also focuses on importance of protein-protein interactions of HSP90 and TRAP1 targets and association of its interacting proteins in various pathways of HCC. To further elucidate the mechanism, systems biology approaches and computational biology approach studies are well explored in the association of inhibition of herbal plant molecules with HSP90 and its mitochondrial type in HCC.

Role of sirtuins in hepatocellular carcinoma progression and multidrug resistance: Mechanistical and pharmacological perspectives

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. Therapeutic strategies are still challenging due to the high relapse rate after surgery and multidrug resistance (MDR). It is essential to better understand the mechanisms for HCC progression and MDR for the development of new therapeutic strategies. Mammalian sirtuins (SIRTs), a family of seven members, are related to tumor progression, MDR and prognosis and were proposed as potential prognostic markers, as well as therapeutic targets for treating cancer. SIRT1 is the most studied member and is overexpressed in HCC, playing an oncogenic role and predicting poor prognosis. Several manuscripts describe the role of SIRTs2-7 in HCC; most of them report an oncogenic role for SIRT2 and -7 and a suppressive role for SIRT3 and -4. The scenario is more confusing for SIRT5 and -6, since information is contradictory and scarce. For SIRT1 many inhibitors are available and they seem to hold therapeutic promise in HCC. For the other members the development of specific modulators has just started. This review is aimed to describe the features of SIRTs1-7 in HCC, and the role they play in the onset and progression of the disease. Also, when possible, we will depict the information related to the SIRTs modulators that have been tested in HCC and their possible implication in MDR. With this, we hope to clarify the role of each member in HCC and to shed some light on the most successful strategies to overcome MDR.

Advances of microRNAs in regulating mitochondrial function: new potential application in NAFLD treatment

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common metabolic diseases and closely associated with lipid disorder. Mitochondrion has been recognized to play a key role in lipid metabolism as the main site of energy metabolism in cells, and its dysfunction is involved in the progression of NAFLD. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), one of regulators in the pathogenesis of NAFLD, are discovered to modulate mitochondrial function by targeting mitochondrial proteins or mitochondrial-related factors, thereby improving or deteriorating NAFLD-associated pathologies. This review summarizes the differentially expressed miRNAs from clinical and experimental models of NAFLD with abilities in regulating mitochondrial function, expounds their underlying molecular mechanism and discusses their prospect and future research direction.

Establishing a novel colorectal cancer predictive model based on unique gut microbial single nucleotide variant markers

Current metagenomic species-based colorectal cancer (CRC) microbial biomarkers may confuse diagnosis because the genetic content of different microbial strains, even those belonging to the same species, may differ from 5% to 30%. Here, a total of 7549 non-redundant single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were annotated in 25 species from 3 CRC cohorts (n = 249). Then, 22 microbial SNV markers that contributed to distinguishing subjects with CRC from healthy subjects were identified by the random forest algorithm to construct a novel CRC predictive model. Excitingly, the predictive model showed high accuracy both in the training (AUC = 75.35%) and validation cohorts (AUC = 73.08%-88.02%). We further explored the specificity of these SNV markers in a broader background by performing a meta-analysis across 4 metabolic disease cohorts. Among these SNV markers, 3 SNVs that were enriched in CRC patients and located in the genomes of Eubacterium rectale and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii were CRC specific (AUC = 72.51%-94.07%).

A target fishing study to spot possible biological targets of fusaric acid: Inhibition of protein kinase-A and insights on the underpinning mechanisms

Fusaric acid is a secondary metabolite produced by various Fusarium fungi, present with relatively high incidence in Fusarium-contaminated foods. It was already described as phytotoxic and cytotoxic. However, the understanding of its molecular mechanisms is still fragmentary and further data are needed to ensure an informed assessment of the risk related to its presence in food. This work applied an integrated in silico/in vitro approach to reveal novel potential biological activities of fusaric acid and to investigate the underpinning mechanisms. An in silico reverse screening was used to identify novel biological targets for fusaric acid. Computational results indicated as target protein kinase-A, which was confirmed with biochemical cell-free assays providing evidence of its actual inhibitory potential. Cell-based experiments on intestinal cells (HCEC-1CT cells) identified the mitochondrial network and cell membranes as potentially affected organelles, possibly resulting from PKA inhibition. The integration of 3D molecular modeling supported the plausibility of fusaric acid-dependent inhibition. From the hazard identification perspective, considering the Low Observed Adverse Effect Level described here (0.1 mM) and the possible level of contamination in food, fusaric acid might raise concern from a food safety standpoint and the gastrointestinal tract was described as a meaningful system to investigate with priority.

Investigation on electronic structure, vibrational spectra, NBO analysis, and molecular docking studies of aflatoxins and selected emerging mycotoxins against wild-type androgen receptor

The geometry, frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), vibrational, NBO analysis, and molecular docking simulations of aflatoxins (B1, B2, M1, M2, G1, G2), zearalenone (ZEA) emodin (EMO), alternariol (AOH), alternariol monoethyl ether (AMME), and tenuazonic acid (TeA) mycotoxins have been extensively theoretically studied and discussed based on quantum density functional theory calculations using Gaussian 16 software package. The theoretical computation for the geometry optimization, NBOs, and the molecular docking interaction was conducted using Density Functional Theory with B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p), NBO program, and AutoDock Vina tools respectively. Charge delocalization patterns and second-order perturbation energies of the most interacting natural bond orbitals (NBOs) of these mycotoxins have also been computed and predicted. Interestingly, among the mycotoxins investigated, aflatoxin G1 is seen to give the strongest stabilization energy while Zearalenone shows the highest tendency to accept electron(s) and emodin, an emerging mycotoxin gave the best binding pose within the androgen receptor pocket with a mean binding affinity of -7.40 kcal/mol.