Myc is involved in Genistein protecting against LPS-induced myocarditis in vitro through mediating MAPK/JNK signaling pathway

Pharmacological Effects of Genistein on Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders that involve the heart or blood vessels and are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Natural products have several pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunoregulatory properties. This review summarizes the possible therapeutic effects of Genistein on CVD. The information from the current review study was obtained by searching for the keywords such as "Genistein", "Cardiac dysfunction", "hypertrophy", and "Ischemia" "lipid profile" in different online database such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, until February 2022. The results of the studies showed that genistein intake has a promising effect on improving cardiac dysfunction, ischemia, and reperfusion of the heart, decreasing cardiac toxicity, modulating lipid profile, and lowering blood pressure. The preventive effects of genistein on experimental models of studies were shown through mechanisms such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects. Pharmacological effects of genistein on cardiac dysfunction, cardiac toxicity, lipid profile, and hypertension indicate the possible remedy effect of this agent in the treatment of CVD.

The multimodal action of genistein in Alzheimer's and other age-related diseases

Genistein is a phytoestrogen that, due to its structural similarity with estrogen, can both mimic and antagonize estrogen effects. Early analysis proved that at high concentrations, genistein inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation, thereby suggesting an anticancer activity. Since then, many discoveries have identified the genistein mechanism of action, including cell cycle arrest, apoptosis induction, as well as angiogenesis, and metastasis inhibition. In this review, we aim to discuss the multimodal action of genistein as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-amyloid β, and autophagy promoter, which could be responsible for the genistein beneficial effect on Alzheimer's. Furthermore, we pinpoint the main signal transduction pathways that are known to be modulated by genistein. Genistein has thus several beneficial effects in several diseases, many of them associated with age, such as the above mentioned Alzheimer disease. Indeed, the beneficial effects of genistein for health promotion depend on each multimodality. In the context of geroscience, genistein has promising beneficial effects due to its multimodal action to treat age associated-diseases.

Hypoxia-inducible transcription factor-1α inhibition by topotecan protects against lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes

Background

Myocarditis, an inflammatory disease of the myocardium, is a serious hazard to human life due to the expansion of inflammatory lesions in the myocardium. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF)-1α and its inhibitor topotecan in the pathogenesis of myocarditis.

Methods

H9c2 cardiomyoblasts was stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to simulate myocarditis model in vitro. The levels of myocardial damage markers were determined using commercially available kits. Western blotting was used to evaluate HIF-1α expression after LPS challenge. Then, after HIF-1α silencing, the contents of inflammatory factors were determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cell viability was tested by means of a cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Cell apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry, and the expression of apoptotic proteins was examined using western blot analysis. Subsequently, HIF-1α was overexpressed and topotecan was employed to treat H9c2 cells under LPS exposure condition. The biological functions were detected again.

Results

LPS significantly elevated the levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and cardiac troponin-I (cTn-I) in supernatant of H9c2 cell lysates. Additionally, LPS led to the notably upregulated expression of HIF-1α. HIF-1α-knockdown markedly decreased the concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 compared with the LPS-induced group. Moreover, the cell viability was conspicuously enhanced and cell apoptotic ratio was remarkably reduced, accompanied by downregulated expression of Bax, Bim, caspase 3 and caspase 9 after HIF-1α silencing. Consistently, HIF-1α gain-of-function significantly promoted the production of inflammatory cytokines and cell apoptosis, which was partially counteracted by topotecan administration.

Conclusion

To conclude, these findings demonstrated that HIF-1α inhibition by topotecan ameliorates LPS-induced myocarditis in vitro, providing a new approach in the treatment of myocarditis.

Network Pharmacology Combined with Bioinformatics to Investigate the Mechanisms and Molecular Targets of Astragalus Radix-Panax notoginseng Herb Pair on Treating Diabetic Nephropathy

Background

Astragalus Radix (AR)-Panax notoginseng (PN), a classical herb pair, has shown significant effects in treating diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the intrinsic mechanism of AR-PN treating DN is still unclear. This study aims to illustrate the mechanism and molecular targets of AR-PN treating DN based on network pharmacology combined with bioinformatics.

Materials and Methods

The Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database was used to screen bioactive ingredients of AR-PN. Subsequently, putative targets of bioactive ingredients were predicted utilizing the DrugBank database and converted into genes on UniProtKB database. DN-related targets were retrieved via analyzing published microarray data (GSE30528) from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Protein-protein interaction networks of AR-PN putative targets and DN-related targets were established to identify candidate targets using Cytoscape 3.8.0. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses of candidate targets were reflected using a plugin ClueGO of Cytoscape. Molecular docking was performed using AutoDock Vina software, and the results were visualized by Pymol software. The diagnostic capacity of hub genes was verified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Results

Twenty-two bioactive ingredients and 189 putative targets of AR-PN were obtained. Eight hundred and fifty differently expressed genes related to DN were screened. The PPI network showed that 115 candidate targets of AR-PN against DN were identified. GO and KEGG analyses revealed that candidate targets of AR-PN against DN were mainly involved in the apoptosis, oxidative stress, cell cycle, and inflammation response, regulating the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, cell cycle, and MAPK signaling pathway. Moreover, MAPK1, AKT1, GSK3B, CDKN1A, TP53, RELA, MYC, GRB2, JUN, and EGFR were considered as the core potential therapeutic targets. Molecular docking demonstrated that these core targets had a great binding affinity with quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, and formononetin components. ROC curve analysis showed that AKT1, TP53, RELA, JUN, CDKN1A, and EGFR are effective in discriminating DN from controls.

Conclusions

AR-PN against DN may exert its renoprotective effects via various bioactive chemicals and the related pharmacological pathways, involving multiple molecular targets, which may be a promising herb pair treating DN. Nevertheless, these results should be further validated by experimental evidence.

Fulminant myocarditis: a comprehensive review from etiology to treatments and outcomes

Fulminant myocarditis (FM) is characterized by a rapid progressive decline in cardiac function and a high mortality rate. Since the first report of FM patients in the 1980s, several clinical trials and research studies have been published increasing our knowledge regarding FM. Currently, the diagnosis of FM depends on various techniques including electrocardiography, echocardiography, endomyocardial biopsy, and cardiac magnetic resonance. The development of mechanical circulation support (MCS) devices and progress in our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying FM, treatment regimens have evolved from simple symptomatic treatment to a life support-based comprehensive treatment approach. The core mechanism underlying the development of FM is the occurrence of an inflammatory cytokine storm. This review provides a comprehensive account of the current understanding of FM pathophysiology and knowledge regarding its etiology, pathophysiology, treatments, and outcomes.