Determination of Endogenous Bufalin in Serum of Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on HPLC-MS/MS

Bufalin CaCO3 Nanoparticles Triggered Pyroptosis through Calcium Overload via Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger Reverse for Cancer Immunotherapy

Bufalin is a promising active ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine but has shown limited anticancer applications due to its toxicity. Here, we report BCNPs@gel, a bufalin-containing CaCO3 nanoparticle hydrogel, for enhancing cancer treatment through inducing cellular pyroptosis. Under the tumor microenvironment's low pH conditions, bufalin and Ca2+ are released from the delivery system. Bufalin serves as a direct anticancer drug and a Na+/K+-ATPase inhibitor by forcing the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger to reverse its function, which transfers Ca2+ into cytoplasm and ultimately causes Ca2+ overload-triggered pyroptosis. Meanwhile, we found that bufalin can upregulate PD-L1 in tumor cells. In combination with the PD-1 antibody, the delivery system showed a greater performance during the cancer treatment. BCNPs@gel enhances antitumor efficiency, reduces systemic side effects, extends antitumor mechanism of bufalin, and provides new strategies for inducing pyroptosis and calcium overload in cancer immunotherapy via Na+/K+-ATPase inhibitor. This work provides an application model for numerous other traditional Chinese medicine ingredients.

Revealing the potential bioactive components and mechanism of Qianhua Gout Capsules in the treatment of gouty arthritis through network pharmacology, molecular docking and pharmacodynamic study strategies

Recent clinical studies have confirmed the effectiveness of Qianhua Gout Capsules (QGC) in the treatment of gouty arthritis (GA). However, the specific regulatory targets and mechanisms of action of QGC are still unclear. To address this gap, we utilized network pharmacology, molecular docking, and pharmacodynamic approaches to investigate the bioactive components and associated mechanisms of QGC in the treatment of GA. By employing UPLC-Q Exactive-MS, we identified the compounds present in QGC, with active ingredients defined as those with oral bioavailability ≥30 % and drug similarity ≥0.18. Subsequently, the targets of these active compounds were determined using the TCMSP database, while GA-related targets were identified from DisGeNET, GeneCards, TTD, OMIM, and DrugBank databases. Further analysis including PPI analysis, GO analysis, and KEGG pathway enrichment was conducted on the targets. Validation of the predicted results was performed using a GA rat model, evaluating pathological changes, inflammatory markers, and pathway protein expression. Our results revealed a total of 130 components, 44 active components, 16 potential shared targets, GO-enriched terms, and 47 signaling pathways related to disease targets. Key active ingredients included quercetin, kaempferol, β-sitosterol, luteolin, and wogonin. The PPI analysis highlighted five targets (PPARG, IL-6, MMP-9, IL-1β, CXCL-8) with the highest connectivity, predominantly enriched in the IL-17 signaling pathway. Molecular docking experiments demonstrated strong binding of CXCL8, IL-1β, IL-6, MMP9, and PPARG targets with the top five active compounds. Furthermore, animal experiments confirmed the efficacy of QGC in treating GA in rats, showing reductions in TNF-α, IL-6, and MDA levels, and increases in SOD levels in serum. In synovial tissues, QGC treatment upregulated CXCL8 and PPARG expression, while downregulating IL-1β, MMP9, and IL-6 expression. In conclusion, this study applied a network pharmacology approach to uncover the composition of QGC, predict its pharmacological interactions, and demonstrate its in vivo efficacy, providing insights into the anti-GA mechanisms of QGC. These findings pave the way for future investigations into the therapeutic mechanisms underlying QGC's effectiveness in the treatment of GA.

ATP1A1 is a promising new target for melanoma treatment and can be inhibited by its physiological ligand bufalin to restore targeted therapy efficacy

Despite advancements in treating metastatic melanoma, many patients exhibit resistance to targeted therapies. Our study focuses on ATP1A1, a sodium pump subunit associated with cancer development. We aimed to assess ATP1A1 prognostic value in melanoma patients and examine the impact of its ligand, bufalin, on melanoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo. High ATP1A1 expression (IHC) correlated with reduced overall survival in melanoma patients. Resistance to BRAF inhibitor was linked to elevated ATP1A1 levels in patient biopsies (IHC, qPCR) and cell lines (Western blot, qPCR). Additionally, high ATP1A1 mRNA expression positively correlated with differentiation/pigmentation markers based on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases and Verfaillie proliferative gene signature analysis. Bufalin specifically targeted ATP1A1 in caveolae, (proximity ligation assay) and influenced Src phosphorylation (Western blot), thereby disrupting multiple signaling pathways (phosphokinase array). In vitro, bufalin induced apoptosis in melanoma cell lines by acting on ATP1A1 (siRNA experiments) and, in vivo, significantly impeded melanoma growth using a nude mouse xenograft model with continuous bufalin delivery via an osmotic pump. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that ATP1A1 could serve as a prognostic marker for patient survival and a predictive marker for response to BRAF inhibitor therapy. By targeting ATP1A1, bufalin inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis in vitro, and effectively suppressed tumor development in mice. Thus, our findings strongly support ATP1A1 as a promising therapeutic target, with bufalin as a potential agent to disrupt its tumor-promoting activity.

Quantification of Cardiotonic Steroids Potentially Regulated by Paraoxonase 3 in a Rat Model of Chronic Kidney Disease Using UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS

Endogenous cardiotonic steroids (CTSs), such as telocinobufagin (TCB) and marinobufagin (MBG) contain a lactone moiety critical to their binding and signaling through the Na+/K+-ATPase. Their concentrations elevate in response to sodium intake and under volume-expanded conditions. Paraoxonase 3 (PON3) is an enzyme that can hydrolyze lactone substrates. Here, we examine the role of PON3 in regulating CTS levels in a rat model of chronic kidney diseases (CKD). TCB and MBG were extracted from rat urine samples, and the analyses were carried out using ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography−Orbitrap-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS). Ten-week-old Dahl salt-sensitive wild type (SS-WT) and Dahl salt-sensitive PON3 knockout (SS-PON3 KO) rats were maintained on a high-salt diet (8% NaCl) for 8 weeks to initiate salt-sensitive hypertensive renal disease characteristic of this model. CTS extraction recovery from urine >80% was achieved. For animals maintained on a normal chow diet, the baseline amount of TCB excreted in 24 h urine of SS-PON3 KO rats (6.08 ± 1.47 ng/24 h; or 15.09 ± 3.25 pmol) was significantly higher than for SS-WT rats (1.48 ± 0.69 ng/24 h; or 3.67 ± 1.54 pmol, p < 0.05). Similarly, for the same animals, the amount of excreted MBG was higher in the urine of SS-PON3 KO rats (4.74 ± 1.30 ng/24 h versus 1.03 ± 0.25 ng/24 h in SS-WT; or 11.83 ± 2.91 pmol versus 2.57 ± 0.56 pmol in SS-WT, p < 0.05). For animals on a high-salt diet, the SS-PON3 KO rats had significantly increased levels of TCB (714.52 ± 79.46 ng/24 h; or 1774.85 ± 175.55 pmol) compared to SS-WT control (343.84 ± 157.54 ng/24 h; or 854.09 ± 350.02 pmol, p < 0.05), and comparatively higher levels of MBG were measured for SS-PON3 KO (225.55 ± 82.61 ng/24 h; or 563.19 ± 184.5 pmol) versus SS-WT (157.56 ± 85.53 ng/24 h; or 393.43 ± 191.01 pmol, p > 0.05) rats. These findings suggest that the presence and absence of PON3 dramatically affect the level of endogenous CTSs, indicating its potential role in CTS regulation.

Bufalin for an innovative therapeutic approach against cancer

Bufalin is an endogenous cardiotonic steroid, first discovered in toad venom but also found in the plasma of healthy humans, with anti-tumour activities in different cancer types. The current review is focused on its mechanisms of action and highlights its very large spectrum of effects both in vitro and in vivo. All leads to the conclusion that bufalin mediates its effects by affecting all the hallmarks of cancer and seems restricted to cancer cells avoiding side effects. Bufalin decreases cancer cell proliferation by acting on the cell cycle and inducing different mechanisms of cell death including apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy and senescence. Bufalin also moderates metastasis formation by blocking migration and invasion as well as angiogenesis and by inducing a phenotype switch towards differentiation and decreasing cancer cell stemness. Regarding its various mechanisms of action in cancer cells, bufalin blocks overactivated signalling pathways and modifies cell metabolism. Moreover, bufalin gained lately a huge interest in the field of drug resistance by both reversing various drug resistance mechanisms and affecting the immune microenvironment. Together, these data support bufalin as a quite promising new anti-cancer drug candidate.

Preeclampsia: Cardiotonic Steroids, Fibrosis, Fli1 and Hint to Carcinogenesis

Despite prophylaxis and attempts to select a therapy, the frequency of preeclampsia does not decrease and it still takes the leading position in the structure of maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide. In this review, we present a new theory of the etiology and pathogenesis of preeclampsia that is based on the interaction of Na/K-ATPase and its endogenous ligands including marinobufagenin. The signaling pathway of marinobufagenin involves an inhibition of transcriptional factor Fli1, a negative regulator of collagen synthesis, followed by the deposition of collagen in the vascular tissues and altered vascular functions. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo neutralization of marinobufagenin is associated with the restoration of Fli1. The inverse relationship between marinobufagenin and Fli1 opens new possibilities in the treatment of cancer; as Fli1 is a proto-oncogene, a hypothesis on the suppression of Fli1 by cardiotonic steroids as a potential anti-tumor therapeutic strategy is discussed as well. We propose a novel therapy of preeclampsia that is based on immunoneutralization of the marinobufagenin by monoclonal antibodies, which is capable of impairing marinobufagenin-Na/K-ATPase interactions.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-mediated messenger RNA signatures and the tumor immune microenvironment can predict the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Background

N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-mediated ribonucleic acid (RNA) methylation is considered to be the most significant and abundant epigenetic modification in eukaryotic cells, and plays an essential role in the carcinogenesis and molecular pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the relationship between m6A regulation and immune cell infiltration of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) has not yet been clarified. We aimed to investigate the roles of m6A RNA gene regulators in HCC immune regulation and prognosis.

Methods

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used, and unsupervised clustering of 21 m6A regulators was performed based on differential gene expression. Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA), single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA), the empirical Bayes method, and m6A scores were used in our analyses.

Results

Of 433 samples, 101 (23.22%) had m6A regulatory factor mutations. From these, we identified three m6A subtypes, which correlated with different TIME phenotypes: immune rejection, immune infiltration, and immune deficiency. Tumors with low methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) expression had increased infiltration of dendritic cells (DCs) in the TIME. Reduced METTL3 expression also led to an overall increase in expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, costimulatory molecules, and adhesion molecules. The m6A subtypes were scored and analyzed for correlations. Patients with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) subtypes had lower m6A scores than the other three molecular subtypes. Survival analysis found that patients with low m6A scores had better overall survival [hazard ratio (HR) 1.6 (1.1–2.3)] and a 1.16 times better 5-year survival rate than patients with high m6A scores (56% vs. 48%).

Conclusions

Our results demonstrated that three different m6A modification subtypes contribute to immune regulation in HCC and have potential as novel prognostic indicators and immune therapeutic targets.

Toad Venom Antiproliferative Activities on Metastatic Melanoma: Bio-Guided Fractionation and Screening of the Compounds of Two Different Venoms

Melanoma is the most common cancer in young adults, with a constantly increasing incidence. Metastatic melanoma is a very aggressive cancer with a 5-year survival rate of about 22-25%. This is, in most cases, due to a lack of therapies which are effective on the long term. Hence, it is crucial to find new therapeutic agents to increase patient survival. Toad venoms are a rich source of potentially pharmaceutically active compounds and studies have highlighted their possible effect on cancer cells. We focused on the venoms of two different toad species: Bufo bufo and Rhinella marina. We screened the venom crude extracts, the fractions from crude extracts and isolated biomolecules by studying their antiproliferative properties on melanoma cells aiming to determine the compound or the combination of compounds with the highest antiproliferative effect. Our results indicated strong antiproliferative capacities of toad venoms on melanoma cells. We found that these effects were mainly due to bufadienolides that are cardiotonic steroids potentially acting on the Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase pump which is overexpressed in melanoma. Finally, our results indicated that bufalin alone was the most interesting compound among the isolated bufadienolides because it had the highest antiproliferative activity on melanoma cells.