[Inhibiting ferroptosis attenuates myocardial injury in septic mice: the role of lipocalin-2]

Extracellular vesicles, a novel model linking bacteria to ferroptosis in the future?

Ferroptosis is a recently discovered modulated cell death mechanism caused by the accumulation of iron-dependent lipid peroxides to toxic levels and plays an important role in tumor immunology and neurology. Recent studies have shown that ferroptosis may play a crucial role in bacterial infection pathogenesis, which may be useful in anti-infection therapies. However, how bacteria enter cells to induce ferroptosis after invading the host immune system remains largely unknown. In addition, the current studies only focus on the relationship between a single bacterial species or genus and host cell ferroptosis, and there is no systematic summary of its regulatory mechanism. Therefore, our review firstly sums up the role of ferroptosis in bacterial infection and its regulatory mechanism, and innovatively speculates on the function and potential mechanism of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in bacterial-induced ferroptosis, in order to provide possible novel directions and ideas for future anti-infection research. KEY POINTS: • Ferroptosis presents a novel mechanism for bacterial host interaction • EVs provide the potential mechanism for bacterial-induced ferroptosis • The relationship of EVs with ferroptosis provides possible directions for future treatment of bacterial infection.

Network-Based Pharmacological Study on the Mechanism of Guishao-Liujun Decoction in the Treatment of Gastric Cancer

Objective: The aim of the study was to use a network pharmacological method to examine the mechanism of Guishao-Liujun decoction against gastric cancer (GC).

Methods: The traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP) and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Database (TCMID) were used to obtain the chemical composition and targets of all the drugs of Guishao-Liujun decoction, and the targets of GC were screened using GeneCards and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) databases. The obtained targets were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.2 software by using the R language to take the intersection for a Venn analysis to construct active ingredient target networks, and they were imported into the STRING database to construct protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks, with the BisoGenet plugin in Cytoscape 3.7.2 being used for analyzing network topology. On the potential target of Guishao-Liujun decoction for GC, gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were performed using the R-language bioconductor platform, and the outcomes were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.2 software to obtain the KEGG network map. The core targets were docked with the active components by the macromolecular docking software application AutoDock Vina.

Results: A total of 243 chemical components and 1,448 disease targets including 127 intersecting targets were discovered. AKT1, TP53, and GO functional analysis were mainly associated with ubiquitination and oxidase reduction activity. In GC treatment, the KEGG analysis revealed that Guishao-Liujun decoction mainly acted through the tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin 17 (IL-17), and cancer-related signaling pathways, with the best binding performance with TP53, as indicated by the outcomes of macromolecular docking.

Conclusion: In the treatment of GC, Guishao-Liujun decoction works with a variety of components and targets, establishing the groundwork for further research into its mechanism of action.