Quantitative analysis of the interplay between hsc70 and its co-chaperone HspBP1

A strategic review of STAT3 signaling inhibition by phytochemicals for cancer prevention and treatment: Advances and insights

Cancer remains a significant global health concern. The dysregulation of signaling networks in tumor cells greatly affects their functions. This review intends to explore phytochemicals possessing potent anticancer properties that specifically target the STAT3 signaling pathway, elucidating strategies and emphasizing their potential as promising candidates for cancer therapy. The review comprehensively examines various STAT3 inhibitors designed to disrupt the signaling cascade, including those targeting upstream activation, SH2 domain phosphorylation, DNA binding domain (DBD), N-terminal domain (NTD), nuclear translocation, and enhancing endogenous STAT3 negative regulators. A literature review was conducted to identify phytochemicals with anticancer activity targeting the STAT3 signaling pathway. Popular research databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, and ResearchGate were searched from the years 1989 - 2023 based on the keywords "Cancer", "STAT3", "Phytochemicals", "Phytochemicals targeting STAT3 signaling", "upstream activation of STAT3", "SH2 domain of STAT3", "DBD of STAT3", "NTD of STAT3, "endogenous negative regulators of STAT3", or "nuclear translocation of STAT3", and their combinations. A total of 264 relevant studies were selected and analyzed based on the mechanisms of action and the efficacy of the phytocompounds. The majority of the discussed phytochemicals primarily focus on inhibiting upstream activation of STAT3. Additionally, flavonoid and terpenoid compounds exhibit multifaceted effects by targeting one or more checkpoints within the STAT3 pathway. Analysis reveals that phytochemicals targeting upstream activation predominantly belong to the classes of flavonoids and terpenoids, which hold significant promise as effective anticancer therapeutics. Future research in this field can be directed towards exploring and developing these scrutinized classes of phytochemicals to achieve desired therapeutic outcomes in cancer treatment.

Physiological responses to different temperature in the liver of Takifugu rubripes larvae revealed by integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses

Water temperature plays a vital role in shaping the physical conditions crucial for the growth, development and reproduction of fish species. Since limited comprehensive multi-omics analyses exploring the molecular mechanisms of temperature influences on the early life stages of fish. Here, the effects of temperature variations on the growth of Takifugu rubripes, a commercial teleost farmed in Asia were investigated. Nineteen-days-old fugu larvae were subjected to different temperature (15 °C-T15, 20 °C-T20, 25 °C-T25) for 30 days. Liver tissues were harvested at the end of the study for transcriptomic and metabolomic assessments. The T. rubripes larvae in the T15 group showed a significant decrease in total length and body weight compared to the T20 and T25 groups (p < 0.05). 1344, 416, and 2080 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in T15-vs-T20, T20-vs-T25, and T15-vs-T25 comparisons, respectively. Those DEGs were mainly enriched in metabolic, protein digestion and absorption, steroid biosynthesis, and glycerophospholipid metabolism pathways. 15 DEGs were randomly selected for RNA-seq validation, and the transcriptome results were consistent with the qPCR validation results, illustrating the accuracy of transcriptome sequencing. 340, 238, and 330 significantly different metabolites (SDMs) were identified in positive modes when comparing in T15-vs-T20, T20-vs-T25, and T15-vs-T25, respectively. Additionally, 145, 137, and 159 SDMs were identified in negative modes within the three comparisons. Those SDMs enriched in biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, glycerophospholipid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, and metabolic pathways. The integration of transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses indicated that DEGs and SDMs mainly enriched in metabolic pathways. These discoveries provide valuable insights into the effects of temperature on fish larvae in aquaculture, laying a foundation for future breeding approaches aimed at improving the growth of T. rubripes.

Transcriptome analysis of the Larimichthys polyactis under heat and cold stress

The small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) is an economically important marine fish that is widely distributed in the East Sea, Yellow Sea and Bohai of China. However, the wild populations of L. polyactis are severely depleted, and there is currently a developing large-scale artificial propagation of this fish for aquaculture. However, the current variety of L. polyactis that is cultivated is not capable to coping with large fluctuations in temperature. Therefore, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms that are activated in response to temperature stress in the L. polyactis. Here, we conducted transcriptomic analysis of the liver of L. polyactis under heat and cold stress. A total of 270,844,888, 265,727,006 and 259,666,218 clean reads were generated from high temperature group, low temperature group and control group, respectively, and comparing expression of genes in these transcriptomes, 10,878 unigenes that were differential expressed were identified. Seventeen of the differentially expressed unigenes were validated by qRT-PCR. Pathway enrichment analysis identified that the ER pathway, immune signaling pathway and metabolic response pathway were affected by temperature stress. The results of this study provide a comprehensive overview of temperature stress-induced transcriptional patterns in liver tissues of the L. polyactis. In addition, these results can guide future molecular studies of heat and cold stress response in this species for improving the stock used for aquaculture.

The Co-Chaperone HspBP1 Is a Novel Component of Stress Granules that Regulates Their Formation

The co-chaperone HspBP1 interacts with members of the hsp70 family, but also provides chaperone-independent functions. We report here novel biological properties of HspBP1 that are relevant to the formation of cytoplasmic stress granules (SGs). SG assembly is a conserved reaction to environmental or pathological insults and part of the cellular stress response. Our study reveals that HspBP1 (1) is an integral SG constituent, and (2) a regulator of SG assembly. Oxidative stress relocates HspBP1 to SGs, where it co-localizes with granule marker proteins and polyA-RNA. Mass spectrometry and co-immunoprecipitation identified novel HspBP1-binding partners that are critical for SG biology. Specifically, HspBP1 associates with the SG proteins G3BP1, HuR and TIA-1/TIAR. HspBP1 also interacts with polyA-RNA in vivo and binds directly RNA homopolymers in vitro. Multiple lines of evidence and single-granule analyses demonstrate that HspBP1 is crucial for SG biogenesis. Thus, HspBP1 knockdown interferes with stress-induced SG assembly. By contrast, HspBP1 overexpression promotes SG formation in the absence of stress. Notably, the hsp70-binding domains of HspBP1 regulate SG production in unstressed cells. Taken together, we identified novel HspBP1 activities that control SG formation. These features expand HspBP1’s role in the cellular stress response and provide new mechanistic insights into SG biogenesis.