Coptidis Rhizoma induces intrinsic apoptosis through BAX and BAK activation in human melanoma

Current Advances in Coptidis Rhizoma for Gastrointestinal and Other Cancers

Cancer is a serious disease with an increasing number of reported cases and high mortality worldwide. Gastrointestinal cancer defines a group of cancers in the digestive system, e.g., liver cancer, colorectal cancer, and gastric cancer. Coptidis Rhizoma (C. Rhizoma; Huanglian, in Chinese) is a classical Chinese medicinal botanical drug for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders and has been shown to have a wide variety of pharmacological activity, including antifungal, antivirus, anticancer, antidiabetic, hypoglycemic, and cardioprotective effects. Recent studies on C. Rhizoma present significant progress on its anticancer effects and the corresponding mechanisms as well as its clinical applications. Herein, keywords related to C. Rhizoma, cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and omics were searched in PubMed and the Web of Science databases, and more than three hundred recent publications were reviewed and discussed. C. Rhizoma extract along with its main components, berberine, palmatine, coptisine, magnoflorine, jatrorrhizine, epiberberine, oxyepiberberine, oxyberberine, dihydroberberine, columbamine, limonin, and derivatives, are reviewed. We describe novel and classic anticancer mechanisms from various perspectives of pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and pharmaceutics. Researchers have transformed the chemical structures and drug delivery systems of these components to obtain better efficacy and bioavailability of C. Rhizoma. Furthermore, C. Rhizoma in combination with other drugs and their clinical application are also summarized. Taken together, C. Rhizoma has broad prospects as a potential adjuvant candidate against cancers, making it reasonable to conduct additional preclinical studies and clinical trials in gastrointestinal cancer in the future.

The Research on the Treatment of Metastatic Skin Cutaneous Melanoma by Huanglian Jiedu Decoction Based on the Analysis of Immune Infiltration Analysis

Objective

To explore the potential mechanism of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (HJD) treatment and prevention of metastatic Cutaneous Melanoma (CM) occurrence and metastasis based on network pharmacological methods and immune infiltration analysis.

Methods

The GEO database was used to obtain metastatic CM disease targets, the TCMSP database and the HERB database were used to obtain HJD action targets, core genes were screened by protein interaction network, and the potential mechanism of HJD in the treatment of metastatic CM was explored by enrichment analysis, prognostic analysis and immune infiltration analysis.

Results

HJD treatment of metastatic CM involved 60 targets, enrichment analysis showed that HJD treatment of metastatic CM involved Chemokine signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, and Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, etc. Prognostic analysis revealed that HJD had a certain ability to improve the prognosis of metastatic CM patients. Immune infiltration analysis showed that HJD could inhibit the immune cell infiltration of metastatic CM patients by acting on related targets.

Conclusions

Our study identified the potential mechanism of HJD in the treatment of metastatic CM through network pharmacology, and revealed the mechanism of HJD in the prevention of Skin Cutaneous Melanoma metastasis through immune infiltration analysis and prognostic analysis.

Altered retina and cornea of Clarias gariepinus (Siluriformes: Clariidae) under the effect of bright and dim lights

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of constant bright light on the cornea and retina of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) and to examine whether it can change after constant exposure to dim light. Twenty-one adult individuals of C. gariepinus were divided into three groups (n = 7). The first group was maintained under normal light (NL). The second group was exposed to the intense bright light (BL) (3020 Lux) of white light lamps for seven days. The third group was exposed to dim light for seven days (DL) following the previous exposure to intense bright light for seven days. The eyes of each fish group were removed and fixed. The following aspects of the eye were investigated: histopathological, immunohistochemical (GFAP and BAX) staining and biochemical study for lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G6PDH). Also, isoenzyme electrophoresis of LDH, G6PDH and SOD were performed. The present study found that, seven-days BL exposure caused damage to both cornea and retina. However, after exposure to dim-light after bright light there was partial improvement in corneal and retinal structure and an increase in the assayed SOD and G6PDH levels, along with a reduction in MDA content and activity of LDH. These findings demonstrate a plasticity that may help C. gariepinus survive disturbances in the aquatic environment.

BCL-w: apoptotic and non-apoptotic role in health and disease

The BCL-2 family of proteins integrates signals that trigger either cell survival or apoptosis. The balance between pro-survival and pro-apoptotic proteins is important for tissue development and homeostasis, while impaired apoptosis contributes to several pathologies and can be a barrier against effective treatment. BCL-w is an anti-apoptotic protein that shares a sequence similarity with BCL-X_L, and exhibits a high conformational flexibility. BCL-w level is controlled by a number of signaling pathways, and the repertoire of transcriptional regulators largely depends on the cellular and developmental context. As only a few disease-relevant genetic alterations of BCL2L2 have been identified, increased levels of BCL-w might be a consequence of abnormal activation of signaling cascades involved in the regulation of BCL-w expression. In addition, BCL-w transcript is a target of a plethora of miRNAs. Besides its originally recognized pro-survival function during spermatogenesis, BCL-w has been envisaged in different types of normal and diseased cells as an anti-apoptotic protein. BCL-w contributes to survival of senescent and drug-resistant cells. Its non-apoptotic role in the promotion of cell migration and invasion has also been elucidated. Growing evidence indicates that a high BCL-w level can be therapeutically relevant in neurodegenerative disorders, neuron dysfunctions and after small intestinal resection, whereas BCL-w inhibition can be beneficial for cancer patients. Although several drugs and natural compounds can bi-directionally affect BCL-w level, agents that selectively target BCL-w are not yet available. This review discusses current knowledge on the role of BCL-w in health, non-cancerous diseases and cancer.

Rational Combination Therapy for Melanoma with Dinaciclib by Targeting BAK-Dependent Cell Death

Mutation of the oncogene BRAF is among the most common genetic alterations in melanoma. BRAF inhibitors alone or in combination with MEK inhibitors fail to eradicate the tumor in most patients due to combinations of intrinsic or acquired resistance. Therefore, novel strategies are needed to improve the therapeutic efficacy of BRAF inhibition. We demonstrated that dinaciclib has potent antimelanoma effects by inducing BAK-dependent apoptosis through MCL1 reduction. Contrary to dinaciclib, the inhibitors of BRAF/MEK/CDK4/6 induced apoptosis dominantly through a BAX-dependent mechanism. Although the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors did not exhibit additive antimelanoma effects, their combination with dinaciclib synergistically inhibited melanoma growth both in vitro and in vivo Collectively, our present findings suggest dinaciclib to be an effective complementary drug of BAX-dependent antimelanoma drugs by targeting BAK-mediated apoptosis, and other such rational drug combinations can be determined by identifying complementary drugs activating either BAK or BAX.

CRISPR/Cas9 Knockout of Bak Mediates Bax Translocation to Mitochondria in response to TNFα/CHX-induced Apoptosis

TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis is dependent on caspase-8 activation and regulated by Bcl-2. However, the specific participants and precise mechanisms underlying this apoptotic pathway are poorly understood. The proapoptotic proteins Bak and Bax—members of the Bcl-2 family—are essential for the functioning of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. In this study, we used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to knockout Bak in the human SH-SY5Y cell line and determined the effects of this knockout on TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis. Our data showed that overexpression of Bcl-2 dramatically prevented TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis, and then pro-apoptotic protein Bak was downregulated and became more resistant to TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis, because both TNFα/CHX-induced PARP cleavage and caspase activation were blocked in BAK−/− cells or using specific siRNA, whereas Bax was dispensable in TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis, as evidenced using specific siRNA. Bax translocated from the cytosol into the mitochondria in response to TNFα/CHX, and CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of Bak significantly decreased this translocation. These results indicate that TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis does not occur in Bak−/− cells, suggesting that TNFα/CHX-induced apoptosis is Bak-dependent but Bax-independent.

Simultaneous quantification of six indicator compounds in Wen-Qing-Yin by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection

A simple gradient high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method was used to simultaneously to analyze characteristics of six indicator compounds in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulation Wen-Qing-Yin (WQY). Separate optimization was performed using a Cosmosil C18 column gradient method with 0.1% formic acid in both mobile phases of aqueous and acetonitrile (ACN), at a flow rate, detection wavelength, and sample volume of 1.8 mL/min, 268 nm, and 10 μL, respectively. The linear regression of six active compounds berberine (BER), baicalin (BAI), ferulic acid (FER), geniposide (GEN), hydorxymethoxylfurfural (HMF), and paeoniflorin (PAE) was produced at the concentration range of 10–2000 μg/mL. The method validation revealed an acceptable precision (intra- and inter-day precision < 3.39% and 4.11%, respectively) and recovery (85.60–110.45% and 86.58–110.90%), a recovery range of 86.61–109.42%, and sensitivity (limit of detection [LOD] and limit of quantification [LOQ] values were in the range of 0.03–3.13, and 0.08–9.38 μg/mL, respectively) while the calibration curves were linear with a correlation coefficient (R²) ranging from 0.9966 to 0.9989. The qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed by direct comparison of the peaks of the WCY extract to retention times of reference standards. Additionally, principal component analysis (PCA) successfully discriminated four purchased commercial samples of all six indicator constituents, and the present results indicate their comprehensive potential usefulness for qualitative and quantitative analyses of the WQY decoction and its commercial products.

Abilities of berberine and chemically modified berberines to inhibit proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells

Berberine (BBR) is a common nutraceutical consumed by millions worldwide. BBR has many different effects on human health, e.g., diabetes, diarrhea, inflammation and now more recently it has been proposed to have potent anti-cancer effects. BBR has been shown to suppress the growth of cancer cells more than normal cells. BBR has been proposed to exert its growth-inhibitory effects by many different biochemical mechanisms including: suppression of cell cycle progression, induction of reactive oxygen species, induction of apoptosis and autophagy and interactions with DNA potentially leading to DNA damage, and altered gene expression. Pancreatic cancer is a leading cancer worldwide associated with a poor prognosis. As our population ages, pancreatic cancer has an increasing incidence and will likely become the second leading cause of death from cancer. There are few truly-effective therapeutic options for pancreatic cancer. Surgery and certain chemotherapeutic drugs are used to treat pancreatic cancer patients. Novel approaches to treat pancreatic cancer patients are direly needed as they usually survive for less than a year after being diagnosed. In the following manuscript, we discuss the abilities of BBR and certain chemically-modified BBRs (NAX compounds) to suppress growth of pancreatic cancer cells.