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Avram S, Puia A, Udrea AM, Mihailescu D, Mernea M, Dinischiotu A, Oancea F, Stiens J. Natural Compounds Therapeutic Features in Brain Disorders by Experimental, Bioinformatics and Cheminformatics Methods. Curr Med Chem 2020; 27:78-98. [PMID: 30378477 DOI: 10.2174/0929867325666181031123127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2017] [Revised: 03/05/2018] [Accepted: 03/11/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Synthetic compounds with pharmaceutical applications in brain disorders are daily designed and synthesized, with well first effects but also seldom severe side effects. This imposes the search for alternative therapies based on the pharmaceutical potentials of natural compounds. The natural compounds isolated from various plants and arthropods venom are well known for their antimicrobial (antibacterial, antiviral) and antiinflammatory activities, but more studies are needed for a better understanding of their structural and pharmacological features with new therapeutic applications. OBJECTIVES Here we present some structural and pharmaceutical features of natural compounds isolated from plants and arthropods venom relevant for their efficiency and potency in brain disorders. We present the polytherapeutic effects of natural compounds belonging to terpenes (limonene), monoterpenoids (1,8-cineole) and stilbenes (resveratrol), as well as natural peptides (apamin, mastoparan and melittin). METHODS Various experimental and in silico methods are presented with special attention on bioinformatics (natural compounds database, artificial neural network) and cheminformatics (QSAR, drug design, computational mutagenesis, molecular docking). RESULTS In the present paper we reviewed: (i) recent studies regarding the pharmacological potential of natural compounds in the brain; (ii) the most useful databases containing molecular and functional features of natural compounds; and (iii) the most important molecular descriptors of natural compounds in comparison with a few synthetic compounds. CONCLUSION Our paper indicates that natural compounds are a real alternative for nervous system therapy and represents a helpful tool for the future papers focused on the study of the natural compounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Speranta Avram
- Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Alin Puia
- Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Ana Maria Udrea
- Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Dan Mihailescu
- Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Maria Mernea
- Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Anca Dinischiotu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Florin Oancea
- Bioproducts Lab, Bioresource Department, National Research and Development Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Johan Stiens
- Department of Electronics and Informatics - ETRO, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
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Meng J, Sun N, Chen Y, Li Z, Cui X, Fan J, Cao H, Zheng W, Jin Q, Jiang L, Zhu W. Artificial neural network optimizes self-examination of osteoporosis risk in women. J Int Med Res 2019; 47:3088-3098. [PMID: 31179797 PMCID: PMC6683875 DOI: 10.1177/0300060519850648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective This study aimed to investigate the application of an artificial neural network (ANN) in optimizing the Osteoporosis Self-Assessment Tool for Asians (OSTA) score. Methods OSTA score was calculated for each female participant that underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry examination in two hospitals (one in each of two Chinese cities, Harbin and Ningbo). An ANN model was built using age and weight as input and femoral neck T-score as output. Osteoporosis risk screening by joint application of ANN and OSTA score was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results Nearly 90% of women with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry-determined femoral neck osteoporosis were ≥60 years old. The ANN with age and weight as input and OSTA score both identified osteoporosis, with respective accuracy rates of 78.8% and 78.3%. However, both methods failed to identify osteoporosis in women < 60 years old. Compared with OSTA score alone, combined use of the two tools increased the rate of osteoporosis recognition among women > 80 years old. Conclusions OSTA score-mediated osteoporosis risk screening should be restricted to women ≥60 years old. Joint application of ANN and OSTA improved osteoporosis risk screening among Chinese women > 80 years old.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Meng
- 1 Department of General Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Ning Sun
- 2 Office of Academic Research, Ningbo Health Career Technical College, Ningbo, China
| | - Yali Chen
- 3 Department of Spine Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | | | - Xiaomeng Cui
- 5 School of Measurement-Control Tech & Communications Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, China
| | - Jingxue Fan
- 1 Department of General Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Hailing Cao
- 1 Department of General Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Wangping Zheng
- 3 Department of Spine Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Qiying Jin
- 3 Department of Spine Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Lihong Jiang
- 1 Department of General Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Wenliang Zhu
- 6 Department of Pharmacy, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
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Wang F, Zhao X, Tan W, Liu W, Jin Y, Liu Q. Early identification of recurrence in ovarian cancer: a comparison between the ovarian cancer metastasis index and CA-125 levels. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5912. [PMID: 30425896 PMCID: PMC6228545 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2018] [Accepted: 10/10/2018] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Ovarian cancer (OC) is the second most common gynecologic malignancy. A clinical observational study was performed to investigate whether indicators that assess the risk of metastasis can identify recurrence earlier in OC patients. By successfully recruiting 41 patients with OC who underwent chemotherapy, we compared cancer antigen-125 (CA-125) and the ovarian cancer metastasis index (OCMI), which was previously developed by us in the clinic for this purpose. Our results showed that patients and their families generally took a sensible attitude toward disease progression and were willing to accept a new way to gain knowledge about the disease. Herein, the new way was the possibility of monitoring recurrence by introducing the OCMI into the clinic. Fifteen patients experienced recurrence during chemotherapy, implying treatment failure. For 53% of these patients, an abnormally high OCMI suggested a strong tendency toward metastasis at least one chemotherapy cycle prior to the pathological examination confirming recurrence. In comparison, the early recognition rate of recurrence using CA-125 levels was merely 13%. Furthermore, we found that the mean values of the OCMI no longer declined after the fourth chemotherapy cycle, implying that excessive chemotherapy brings no benefit to OC patients. In conclusion, our findings provide a novel and feasible approach to monitor the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the treatment of OC by assessing the potential risk of metastasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fei Wang
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Xuejun Zhao
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Wenhua Tan
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Wei Liu
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Yuxia Jin
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Qian Liu
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
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Cui X, Li Z, Zhao Y, Song A, Shi Y, Hai X, Zhu W. Breast cancer identification via modeling of peripherally circulating miRNAs. PeerJ 2018; 6:e4551. [PMID: 29607263 PMCID: PMC5875392 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 03/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Prolonged life expectancy in humans has been accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of cancers. Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. It accounts for one-fourth of all diagnosed cancers and affects one in eight females worldwide. Given the high BC prevalence, there is a practical need for demographic screening of the disease. In the present study, we re-analyzed a large microRNA (miRNA) expression dataset (GSE73002), with the goal of optimizing miRNA biomarker selection using neural network cascade (NNC) modeling. Our results identified numerous candidate miRNA biomarkers that are technically suitable for BC detection. We combined three miRNAs (miR-1246, miR-6756-5p, and miR-8073) into a single panel to generate an NNC model, which successfully detected BC with 97.1% accuracy in an independent validation cohort comprising 429 BC patients and 895 healthy controls. In contrast, at least seven miRNAs were merged in a multiple linear regression model to obtain equivalent diagnostic performance (96.4% accuracy in the independent validation set). Our findings suggested that suitable modeling can effectively reduce the number of miRNAs required in a biomarker panel without compromising prediction accuracy, thereby increasing the technical possibility of early detection of BC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaomeng Cui
- The higher educational key laboratory for Measuring & Control Technology and Instrumentations of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, China.,School of Measurement-Control Tech & Communications Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, China
| | - Zhangming Li
- Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Foshan, China
| | - Yilei Zhao
- Department of Pharmacy, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Anqi Song
- Department of Student Affairs, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Yunbo Shi
- The higher educational key laboratory for Measuring & Control Technology and Instrumentations of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, China.,School of Measurement-Control Tech & Communications Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, China
| | - Xin Hai
- Department of Pharmacy, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Wenliang Zhu
- Department of Pharmacy, Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
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Neural Network Modeling of AChE Inhibition by New Carbazole-Bearing Oxazolones. Interdiscip Sci 2017; 11:95-107. [PMID: 29236214 DOI: 10.1007/s12539-017-0245-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2016] [Revised: 06/15/2017] [Accepted: 06/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Acetylcholine esterase (AChE) is one of the targeted enzymes in the therapy of important neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Many studies on carbazole- and oxazolone-based compounds have been conducted in the last decade due to the importance of these compounds. New carbazole-bearing oxazolones were synthesized from several carbazole aldehydes and p-nitrobenzoyl glycine as AChE inhibitors by the Erlenmeyer reaction in the present study. The inhibitory effects of three carbazole-bearing oxazolone derivatives on AChE were studied in vitro and the experimental results were modeled using artificial neural network (ANN). The developed ANN provided sufficient correlation between several dependent systems, including enzyme inhibition. The inhibition data for AChE were modeled by a two-layered ANN architecture. High correlation coefficients were observed between the experimental and predicted ANN results. Synthesized carbazole-bearing oxazolone derivatives inhibited AChE under in vitro conditions, and further research involving in vivo studies is recommended. An ANN may be a useful alternative modeling approach for enzyme inhibition.
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Medical examination powers miR-194-5p as a biomarker for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Sci Rep 2017; 7:16726. [PMID: 29196685 PMCID: PMC5711921 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-17075-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
An important attribute of microRNAs is their potential use as disease biomarkers. However, such applications may be restricted because of unsatisfactory performance of the microRNA of interest. Owing to moderate correlation with spine T-score, miR-194-5p was identified as a potential biomarker for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Here, we determined whether medical examination could improve its characteristic as a biomarker for postmenopausal osteoporosis. We recruited 230 postmenopausal Chinese women to measure circulating levels of miR-194-5p, determine the spine bone status, and perform a 42-item medical examination. No obvious information redundancy was observed between miR-194-5p and any one item. However, on examining miR-194-5p alone, the sensitivity at fixed specificity of 0.9 (SESP=0.9) was 0.27, implying poor identification of at-risk individuals. Model integration of the microRNA and multiple medical items strengthened this property; in addition, model complexity greatly contributed to performance improvement. Using a model composed of two artificial neural networks, the ability of miR-194-5p to identify at-risk individuals significantly improved (SESP=0.9 = 0.54) when correlated with five medical items: weight, age, left ventricular end systolic diameter, alanine aminotransferase, and urine epithelial cell count. We present a feasible way to achieve a more accurate microRNA-based biomarker for a disease of interest.
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Qu Y, He Y, Li Z, Chen X, Liu Q, Zou S, Kong C, Liu Y, Gao C, Zhang G, Zhu W. Constructing an ovarian cancer metastasis index by dissecting medical records. Oncotarget 2017; 8:102212-102222. [PMID: 29254237 PMCID: PMC5731947 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.22336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Accepted: 09/22/2017] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Globally, ovarian cancer (OC) is the leading cause of gynecological cancer-associated deaths. Metastasis, especially multi-organ metastasis, determines the speed of disease progression. A multicenter retrospective study was performed to identify the factors that drive metastasis, from medical records of 534 patients with OC. The average number of target organs per patient was 3.66, indicating multi-organ metastasis. The most common sites of metastasis were large intestine and greater omentum, which were prone to co-metastasis. Results indicated that ascites and laterality, rather than age and menopausal status, were the potential drivers for multi-organ metastasis. Cancer antigen (CA) 125 (CA-125) and nine other blood indicators were found to show a significant, but weak correlation with multi-organ metastasis. A neural network cascade-multiple linear regression hybrid model was built to create an ovarian cancer metastasis index (OCMI) by integration of six multi-organ metastasis drivers including CA-125, blood platelet count, lymphocytes percentage, prealbumin, ascites, and laterality. In an independent set of 267 OC medical records, OCMI showed a moderate correlation with multi-organ metastasis (Spearman ρ = 0.67), the value being 0.72 in premenopausal patients, and good performance in identifying multi-organ metastasis (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.832), implying a potential prognostic marker for OC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanjun Qu
- Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Yanan He
- Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Zhangming Li
- Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Foshan, China
| | - Xiuwei Chen
- Department of Gynecology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Qian Liu
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Shuangshuang Zou
- Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Congcong Kong
- Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Yixiu Liu
- Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Ce Gao
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Guangmei Zhang
- Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - Wenliang Zhu
- Department of Pharmacy, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Institute of Clinical Pharmacy, The Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
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Wang Y, Song W, Wu J, Li Z, Mu F, Li Y, Huang H, Zhu W, Zhang F. Modeling using clinical examination indicators predicts interstitial lung disease among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3021. [PMID: 28243535 PMCID: PMC5322753 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2016] [Accepted: 01/24/2017] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a severe extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that is well-defined as a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. A proportion of patients with RA-associated ILD (RA-ILD) develop pulmonary fibrosis (PF), resulting in poor prognosis and increased lifetime risk. We investigated whether routine clinical examination indicators (CEIs) could be used to identify RA patients with high PF risk. A total of 533 patients with established RA were recruited in this study for model building and 32 CEIs were measured for each of them. To identify PF risk, a new artificial neural network (ANN) was built, in which inputs were generated by calculating Euclidean distance of CEIs between patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that the ANN performed well in predicting the PF risk (Youden index = 0.436) by only incorporating four CEIs including age, eosinophil count, platelet count, and white blood cell count. A set of 218 RA patients with healthy lungs or suffering from ILD and a set of 87 RA patients suffering from PF were used for independent validation. Results showed that the model successfully identified ILD and PF with a true positive rate of 84.9% and 82.8%, respectively. The present study suggests that model integration of multiple routine CEIs contributes to identification of potential PF risk among patients with RA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yao Wang
- Department of Microbiology, Wu Lien-Teh Institute, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
| | - Wuqi Song
- Department of Microbiology, Wu Lien-Teh Institute, Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - Jing Wu
- Department of Microbiology, Wu Lien-Teh Institute, Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - Zhangming Li
- Department of Pharmacy Administration, Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - Fengyun Mu
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - Yang Li
- Department of Rheumatology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - He Huang
- Department of Rheumatology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - Wenliang Zhu
- Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
| | - Fengmin Zhang
- Department of Microbiology, Wu Lien-Teh Institute, Harbin Medical University , Harbin , Heilongjiang Province , China
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