FXR Mediates Adenylyl Cyclase 8 Expression in Pancreatic β-Cells

FXR-mediated epigenetic regulation of GLP-1R expression contributes to enhanced incretin effect in diabetes after RYGB

In this study, we investigated how Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) enhances glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) response in GK rats and explored the potential link between RYGB-stimulated BAs/FXR signalling and GLP-1R-linked signalling in β-cells, a key pathway that regulates glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). Here we show that RYGB restores GLP-1R expression in GK rat islets. This involves increased total BAs as well as chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), leading to FXR activation, increasing FXR binding to the promoter of Glp-1r and enhancing occupancy of histone acetyltransferase steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC1), thus increasing histone H3 acetylation at the promoter. These coordinated events bring about increased GLP-1R expression, resulting in greater GLP-1 response in β-cells. Moreover, ablation of FXR suppressed the stimulatory effects of GLP-1. Thus, this study unravels the crucial role of the BAs/FXR/SRC1 axis-controlled GLP-1R expression in β-cells, which results in enhanced incretin effect and normalized blood glucose of GK rats after RYGB.

Polymorphism in ovine ADCY8 gene and its association with residual feed intake in Hu sheep

Feed efficiency makes up a large part of sheep production, which also has a crucial impact on the economic benefits of producers. This study explores the polymorphism of Adenylyl cyclase 8 gene associated with feed efficiency and detects the expression characteristics of ADCY8 in ten tissues of Hu sheep. The polymorphism of ADCY8 was recognized by using PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing, KASPar technology was used for genotyping subsequently, and the relationship between SNP and RFI is also studied. The results indicated that an intronic mutation g.24799148 C > T (rs 423395741) was identified in ADCY8, and association analysis showed that the SNP g.24799148 C > T (rs 423395741) was significantly associated with RFI at 100-120, 100-140, 100-160, and 100-180 days (p < 0.05). The quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) result showed that ADCY8 was expressed in ten tissues, and the expression of ADCY8 gene in rumen tissue was significantly higher than in the other tested tissues. Therefore, these results indicated that the ADCY8 mutation locus may be used as a candidate molecular marker for evaluating the feed efficiency of Hu sheep.

Enterohepatic and non-canonical roles of farnesoid X receptor in controlling lipid and glucose metabolism

Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is a nuclear receptor that transcriptionally regulates bile acid homeostasis along with nutrient metabolism. In addition to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, FXR expression has been widely noted in kidney, adrenal gland, pancreas, adipose, skeletal muscle, heart, and brain. Except for the liver and gut, the relevance of FXR signaling in metabolism in other tissues remains poorly understood. This review examines the classical and non-canonical tissue-specific roles of FXR in regulating, lipids, and glucose homeostasis under normal and diseased states. FXR activation has been reported to be protective against cholestasis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Several ongoing clinical trials are investigating FXR ligands as a therapeutic target for primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and NASH, which substantiate the significance of FXR signaling in modulating metabolic processes. This review highlights that FXR ligands, albeit an attractive therapeutic target for treating metabolic diseases, tissue-specific modulation of FXR may be the key to overcoming some of the adverse clinical effects.

Adapting Physiology in Functional Human Islet Organogenesis

Generation of three-dimensional (3D)-structured functional human islets is expected to be an alternative cell source for cadaveric human islet transplantation for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), offer infinite resources for newly synthesized human islets. Recent advancements in hPSCs technology have enabled direct differentiation to human islet-like clusters, which can sense glucose and secrete insulin, and those islet clusters can ameliorate diabetes when transplanted into rodents or non-human primates (NHPs). However, the generated hPSC-derived human islet-like clusters are functionally immature compared with primary human islets. There remains a challenge to establish a technology to create fully functional human islets in vitro, which are functionally and transcriptionally indistinguishable from cadaveric human islets. Understanding the complex differentiation and maturation pathway is necessary to generate fully functional human islets for a tremendous supply of high-quality human islets with less batch-to-batch difference for millions of patients. In this review, I summarized the current progress in the generation of 3D-structured human islets from pluripotent stem cells and discussed the importance of adapting physiology for in vitro functional human islet organogenesis and possible improvements with environmental cues.

Physiological roles of mammalian transmembrane adenylyl cyclase isoforms

Adenylyl cyclases (ACs) catalyze the conversion of ATP to the ubiquitous second messenger cAMP. Mammals possess nine isoforms of transmembrane ACs, dubbed AC1-9, that serve as major effector enzymes of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The transmembrane ACs display varying expression patterns across tissues, giving the potential for them to have a wide array of physiological roles. Cells express multiple AC isoforms, implying that ACs have redundant functions. Furthermore, all transmembrane ACs are activated by Gαs, so it was long assumed that all ACs are activated by Gαs-coupled GPCRs. AC isoforms partition to different microdomains of the plasma membrane and form prearranged signaling complexes with specific GPCRs that contribute to cAMP signaling compartments. This compartmentation allows for a diversity of cellular and physiological responses by enabling unique signaling events to be triggered by different pools of cAMP. Isoform-specific pharmacological activators or inhibitors are lacking for most ACs, making knockdown and overexpression the primary tools for examining the physiological roles of a given isoform. Much progress has been made in understanding the physiological effects mediated through individual transmembrane ACs. GPCR-AC-cAMP signaling pathways play significant roles in regulating functions of every cell and tissue, so understanding each AC isoform's role holds potential for uncovering new approaches for treating a vast array of pathophysiological conditions.

Physiological Role of Bile Acids Modified by the Gut Microbiome

Bile acids (BAs) are produced from cholesterol in the liver and are termed primary BAs. Primary BAs are conjugated with glycine and taurine in the liver and then released into the intestine via the gallbladder. After the deconjugation of glycine or taurine by the gut microbiome, primary BAs are converted into secondary BAs by the gut microbiome through modifications such as dehydroxylation, oxidation, and epimerization. Most BAs in the intestine are reabsorbed and transported to the liver, where both primary and secondary BAs are conjugated with glycine or taurine and rereleased into the intestine. Thus, unconjugated primary Bas, as well as conjugated and unconjugated secondary BAs, have been modified by the gut microbiome. Some of the BAs reabsorbed from the intestine spill into the systemic circulation, where they bind to a variety of nuclear and cell-surface receptors in tissues, whereas some of the BAs are not reabsorbed and bind to receptors in the terminal ileum. BAs play crucial roles in the physiological regulation of various tissues. Furthermore, various factors, such as diet, age, and antibiotics influence BA composition. Here, we review recent findings regarding the physiological roles of BAs modified by the gut microbiome in the metabolic, immune, and nervous systems.

Transcriptomic and Quantitative Proteomic Profiling Reveals Signaling Pathways Critical for Pancreatic Islet Maturation

Pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and reduced insulin secretion play a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Fetal and neonatal islets are functionally immature and have blunted glucose responsiveness and decreased insulin secretion in response to stimuli and are far more proliferative. However, the mechanisms underlying functional immaturity are not well understood. Pancreatic islets are composed of a mixture of different cell types, and the microenvironment of islets and interactions between these cell types are critical for β-cell development and maturation. RNA sequencing and quantitative proteomic data from intact islets isolated from fetal (embryonic day 19) and 2-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were integrated to compare their gene and protein expression profiles. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was also applied to elucidate pathways and upstream regulators modulating functional maturation of islets. By integrating transcriptome and proteomic data, 917 differentially expressed genes/proteins were identified with a false discovery rate of less than 0.05. A total of 411 and 506 of them were upregulated and downregulated in the 2-week-old islets, respectively. IPA revealed novel critical pathways associated with functional maturation of islets, such as AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) and aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling, as well as the importance of lipid homeostasis/signaling and neuronal function. Furthermore, we also identified many proteins enriched either in fetal or 2-week-old islets related to extracellular matrix and cell communication, suggesting that these pathways play critical roles in islet maturation. Our present study identified novel pathways for mature islet function in addition to confirming previously reported mechanisms, and provided new mechanistic insights for future research on diabetes prevention and treatment.

Functional network analysis reveals potential repurposing of β-blocker atenolol for pancreatic cancer therapy

BACKGROUND

The survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer is low; therefore, continuous discovery and development of novel pancreatic cancer drugs are required. Functional network analysis is an integrated bioinformatics approach based on gene, target, and disease networks interaction, and it is extensively used in drug discovery and development.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to identify if atenolol, a selective adrenergic inhibitor, can be repurposed for the treatment of pancreatic cancer using functional network analysis.

METHODS

Direct target proteins (DTPs) and indirect target proteins (ITPs) were obtained from STITCH and STRING databases, respectively. Atenolol-mediated proteins (AMPs) were collected from DTPs and ITPs and further analyzed for gene ontology, KEGG pathway enrichment, genetic alterations, overall survival, and molecular docking.

RESULTS

We obtained 176 AMPs that consisted of 10 DTPs and 166 ITPs. Among the AMPs involved in the pancreatic cancer pathways, several AMPs such as MAPK1, RELA, MAPK8, STAT1, and STAT3 were identified. Genetic alterations in seven AMPs were identified in 0.9%-16% of patients. Patients with high mRNA levels of MAPK1, RELA, STAT3, GNB1, and MMP9 had significantly worse overall survival rates compared with patients with low expression. Molecular docking studies showed that RELA and MMP9 are potential target candidates of atenolol in the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, atenolol can potentially be repurposed to target pancreatic cancer cells by modulating MMP9 and NF-κB signaling. The results of this study need to be further validated in vitro and in vivo.

Potential role of adenylyl cyclase 8 signaling complexes in regulating insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells

Glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic β cells is mediated by Ca²⁺ influx and amplified by stimulation of GLP-1-receptors through cAMP-based signaling pathways. Interestingly, it has been found that glucose-induced Ca²⁺ signals can induce concurrent adenylyl cyclase isoform 8 (AC8)-mediated cAMP signals and, conversely, that GLP-1-receptor-mediated cAMP signals are able to induce Ca²⁺ signals. In this review, we explore the signaling complexes revolving around AC8 in modulating insulin release, from the initial discovery of the importance of this AC isoform to recent investigations of its interacting molecular partners. We suggest that investigating the structural assembly of the proteins associated with AC8 in β cells might reveal how this particular protein complex could be targeted to modify insulin secretion. Specifically, we suggest that disrupting the protein-protein interaction between A-kinase anchoring protein 79 (AKAP79) and AC8 could lead to disinhibition of AC8 activity and increased insulin secretion. Potentially, AC8 protein interactions could become a future target in type 2 diabetic patients with dysfunction of insulin secretion.