Vitexin attenuates non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) lipid accumulation in high fat-diet fed mice by activating autophagy and reducing endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in liver

Research status and hotspots in the field of endoplasmic reticulum stress and liver disease: A bibliometric study

Recently, the study of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and liver disease has attracted much attention, but bibliometric analysis on this field is scarce. Therefore, to address this gap, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to explore the research status, hotspots, and trends in this field. We searched the Web of Science Core Collection database for publications on ERS and liver disease from 2007 to 2022. Bibliometric online analysis platform, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace were used to perform bibliometric analysis. Two thousand seven hundred fifty-one publications were retrieved form the Web of Science Core Collection database. The USA was the most productive and influential country. Seoul National University, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, and Kaufman RJ were the most productive institution, journal, and author. "Endoplasmic reticulum stress," "nonalcoholic fatty liver disease," "inflammation," "oxidative stress" and "insulin resistance" were the high-frequency keywords, "necrosis factor alpha" was the keywords with the strongest citation bursts, and "nonalcoholic fatty liver," "fibrosis" and "lipid droplet" were the keywords that were still bursting in 2022. The number of publications on ERS and liver disease has increased over the past years. The USA was the most productive and influential country. China has become the country with the largest number of annual publications, but it still needs to work on the quality. ERS and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, especially the insulin resistance and lipotoxicity in hepatocytes may be the research hotspots and trends in this field of ERS and liver disease.

Endoplasmic reticulum stress in pancreatic β-cell dysfunction: The potential therapeutic role of dietary flavonoids

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health burden that is characterized by the loss or dysfunction of pancreatic β-cells. In pancreatic β-cells, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a fact of life that contributes to β-cell loss or dysfunction. Despite recent advances in research, the existing treatment approaches such as lifestyle modification and use of conventional therapeutics could not prevent the loss or dysfunction of pancreatic β-cells to abrogate the disease progression. Therefore, targeting ER stress and the consequent unfolded protein response (UPR) in pancreatic β-cells may be a potential therapeutic strategy for diabetes treatment. Dietary phytochemicals have therapeutic applications in human health owing to their broad spectrum of biochemical and pharmacological activities. Flavonoids, which are commonly obtained from fruits and vegetables worldwide, have shown promising prospects in alleviating ER stress. Dietary flavonoids including quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, isorhamnetin, fisetin, icariin, apigenin, apigetrin, vitexin, baicalein, baicalin, nobiletin hesperidin, naringenin, epigallocatechin 3-O-gallate hesperidin (EGCG), tectorigenin, liquiritigenin, and acacetin have shown inhibitory effects on ER stress in pancreatic β-cells. Dietary flavonoids modulate ER stress signaling components, chaperone proteins, transcription factors, oxidative stress, autophagy, apoptosis, and inflammatory responses to exert their pharmacological effects on pancreatic β-cells ER stress. This review focuses on the role of dietary flavonoids as potential therapeutic adjuvants in preserving pancreatic β-cells from ER stress. Highlights of the underlying mechanisms of action are also presented as well as possible strategies for clinical translation in the management of DM.

Current Advances in the Regulatory Effects of Bioactive Compounds from Dietary Resources on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Role of Autophagy

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent chronic liver disease characterized by lipid metabolic disorder primarily due to sedentary lifestyles and excessive food consumption. However, there are currently no approved and effective drugs available to treat NAFLD. In recent years, research has shown that dietary bioactive compounds, such as polysaccharides, polyphenols, flavones, and alkaloids, have the potential to improve NAFLD by regulating autophagy. However, there is no up-to-date review of research progress in this field. This review aims to systematically summarize and discuss the regulatory effects and molecular mechanisms of dietary bioactive compounds on NAFLD through the modulation of autophagy. The existing research has demonstrated that some dietary bioactive compounds can effectively improve various aspects of NAFLD progression, such as lipid metabolism, insulin resistance (IR), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, oxidative stress, mitochondrial homeostasis, and inflammation. Molecular mechanism studies have revealed that they exert their beneficial effects on NAFLD through autophagy-mediated signaling pathways, predominantly involving transcription factor EB (TFEB), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), SIRT, and PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1)/parkin. Furthermore, the challenges and prospects of current research in this field are highlighted. Overall, this review provides valuable insights into the potential treatment of NAFLD using dietary bioactive compounds that can modulate autophagy.

Yao-Shan of traditional Chinese medicine: an old story for metabolic health

Type 2 diabetes mellitus, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs), hyperuricemia and gout, and metabolic-related sexual dysfunction are metabolic diseases that affect human health in modern society. Scientists have made great efforts to investigate metabolic diseases using cell models in vitro or animal models in the past. However, the findings from cells or animals are difficult to translate into clinical applications due to factors such as the in vitro and in vivo differences; the differences in anatomy, physiology, and genetics between humans and animals; and the differences in microbiome-host interaction. The Chinese have extensively used the medicated diet of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (also named as Yao-Shan of TCM, Chinese Yao-Shan et al.) to maintain or improve cardiometabolic health for more than 2,200 years. These ancient classic diets of TCM are essential summaries of long-term life and clinical practices. Over the past 5 years, our group has made every effort to collect and sort out the classic Yao-Shan of TCM from the ancient TCM literature since Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, especially these are involved in the prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, NAFLD, CCVDs, hyperuricemia and gout, and sexual dysfunction. Here, we summarized and discussed the classic Yao-Shan of TCM for metabolic diseases according to the time recorded in the ancient literature, and revised the Latin names of the raw materials in these Yao-Shan of TCM. Moreover, the modern medicine evidences of some Yao-Shan of TCM on metabolic diseases have also been summarized and emphasized in here. However, the exact composition (in terms of ratios), preparation process, and dosage of many Yao-Shan are not standardized, and their main active ingredients are vague. Uncovering the mystery of Yao-Shan of TCM through modern biological and chemical strategies will help us open a door, which is ancient but now looks new, to modulate metabolic homeostasis and diseases.

Curcumin Reduces Pathological Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress through Increasing Proteolysis of Mutant Matrilin-3

The intracellular retention of mutant cartilage matrix proteins and pathological endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress disrupts ossification and has been identified as a shared disease mechanism in a range of skeletal dysplasias including short limbed-dwarfism, multiple epiphyseal dysplasia type 5 (EDM5). Although targeting ER stress is an attractive avenue for treatment and has proven successful in the treatment of a related skeletal dysplasia, to date no drugs have proven successful in reducing ER stress in EDM5 caused by the retention of mutant matrilin-3. Our exciting findings show that by using our established luciferase ER stress screening assay, we can identify a "natural" chemical, curcumin, which is able to reduce pathological ER stress in a cell model of EDM5 by promoting the proteasomal degradation mutant matrilin-3. Therefore, this is an important in vitro study in which we describe, for the first time, the success of a naturally occurring chemical as a potential treatment for this currently incurable rare skeletal disease. As studies show that curcumin can be used as a potential treatment for range of diseases in vitro, current research is focused on developing novel delivery strategies to enhance its bioavailability. This is an important and exciting area of research that will have significant clinical impact on a range of human diseases including the rare skeletal disease, EDM5.