Myrica salicifolia Hochst. ex A. Rich. suppress acetic acid-induced ulcerative colitis in rats by reducing TNF-alpha and interleukin-6, oxidative stress parameters and improving mucosal protection

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with rising prevalence in developing countries, and limited success of current therapies, natural products have immense potential for therapy due to their "disease modifying and side-effect neutralizing" potential. Myrica salicifolia is traditionally used for gastrointestinal diseases and have reported antiinflammatory activities, but its use in IBD has not yet been studied. Therefore, in the present study, the effects of the root extract of M. salicifolia (Ms.Cr) were investigated using the acetic acid-induced UC model in rats. For 6 days, the rats were given either vehicle (10 mL/kg), lower (200 mg/kg), and higher (400 mg/kg) doses of Ms.Cr, or the positive control drug (prednisolone; 2 mg/kg) orally. A single dosage of 5% acetic acid (1.0 mL) was administered intrarectally to rats on day 6 to induce UC. Disease activity index (DAI), histological observations, the biochemical parameters related to oxidative stress, and specific cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were determined to assess the effect of Ms.Cr. In comparison to the AA-induced colitis rats, Ms.Cr's pretreatment significantly decreased DAI, colonic ulceration, and inflammatory score. Total glutathione levels and catalase activity were considerably recovered in the colitis group treated with Ms.Cr, whereas enhanced lipid peroxidation in colon tissues was significantly decreased. Moreover, Ms.Cr pretreatment also caused inhibition of the activation of IL-6 and TNF-α in the colonic tissues of respective groups. Based on these findings, Ms.Cr might be developed to treat UC in the future.

Nontargeted mass spectrometry of dried blood spots for interrogation of the human circulating metabolome

Advances in high-resolution, nontargeted mass spectrometry allow for the simultaneous measure of thousands of metabolites in a single biosample. Application of these analytical approaches to population-scale human studies has been limited by the need for resource-intensive blood sample collection, preparation, and storage. Dried blood spotting, a technique developed decades ago for newborn screening, may offer a simple approach to overcome barriers in human blood acquisition and storage. In this study, we find that over 4,400 spectral features across diverse chemical classes may be efficiently and reproducibly extracted and relatively quantified from human dried blood spots using nontargeted metabolomic analysis employing HILIC and reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Moreover, over 80% of metabolites were found to be chemically stable in dried blood spots stored at room temperature for up to a week. In direct relation to plasma samples, dried blood spots exhibited comparable representation of the human circulating metabolome, capturing both known and previously uncharacterized metabolites. Dried blood spot approaches provide an opportunity for rapid and facile human biosampling and storage and will enable widespread metabolomics study of populations, particularly in resource-limited areas.

Roflumilast, a phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, attenuates cadmium-induced renal toxicity via modulation of NF-κB activation and induction of NQO1 in rats

Objective:

In the present study, the protective effect of Roflumilast (ROF, a selective phosphodiesterase (PDE-4) inhibitor) was investigated against cadmium (Cd)-induced nephrotoxicity in rats.

Methods:

A total of 24 rats were selected and randomly divided into four groups ( n = 6). Group 1 served as the control; groups 2–4 administered with CdCl2 (3 mg/kg, i.p.) for 7 days; groups 3 and 4 were co-administered with ROF in doses of 0.5 and 1.5 mg/kg, orally for 7 consecutive days. Nephrotoxicity was evaluated by measuring urine volume, urea and creatinine levels in urine and serum. Oxidative stress was confirmed by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) levels in kidney tissue followed by histopathological studies.

Results:

CdCl2 administration results in a significant ( p < 0.01) decrease in urine volume, urea, and creatinine levels in urine, as well as GSH, SOD, and CAT levels in renal tissue. In addition, Cd also produced significantly increased ( p < 0.01) urea and creatinine levels in serum and TBARS levels in renal tissues. Rats treated with ROF significantly ( p < 0.01) restore the altered levels of kidney injury markers, nonenzymatic antioxidant, as well as depleted enzymes in dose-dependent manner. An increased expression of NF-κB p65 and decreased expression of GST and NQO1 in the Cd only treated group were significantly reversed by high dose of ROF (1.5 mg/kg). Histopathological changes were also ameliorated by ROF administration in Cd-treated groups.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, ROF treatment showed protective effect against renal damage and increased oxidative stress induced by Cd administration.

Oxidative airway inflammation leads to systemic and vascular oxidative stress in a murine model of allergic asthma

Oxidant-antioxidant imbalance plays an important role in repeated cycles of airway inflammation observed in asthma. It is when reactive oxygen species (ROS) overwhelm antioxidant defenses that a severe inflammatory state becomes apparent and may impact vasculature. Several studies have shown an association between airway inflammation and cardiovascular complications; however so far none has investigated the link between airway oxidative stress and systemic/vascular oxidative stress in a murine model of asthma. Therefore, this study investigated the contribution of oxidative stress encountered in asthmatic airways in modulation of vascular/systemic oxidant-antioxidant balance. Rats were sensitized intraperitoneally with ovalbumin (OVA) in the presence of aluminum hydroxide followed by several intranasal (i.n.) challenges with OVA. Rats were then assessed for airway and vascular inflammation, oxidative stress (ROS, lipid peroxides) and antioxidants measured as total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and thiol content. Challenge with OVA led to increased airway inflammation and oxidative stress with a concomitant increase in vascular inflammation and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress in the vasculature was significantly inhibited by antioxidant treatment, N-acetyl cysteine; whereas hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) inhalation worsened it. Therefore, our study shows that oxidative airway inflammation is associated with vascular/systemic oxidative stress which might predispose these patients to increased cardiovascular risk.

The computational analysis of scientific literature to define and recognize gene expression clusters

A limitation of many gene expression analytic approaches is that they do not incorporate comprehensive background knowledge about the genes into the analysis. We present a computational method that leverages the peer-reviewed literature in the automatic analysis of gene expression data sets. Including the literature in the analysis of gene expression data offers an opportunity to incorporate functional information about the genes when defining expression clusters. We have created a method that associates gene expression profiles with known biological functions. Our method has two steps. First, we apply hierarchical clustering to the given gene expression data set. Secondly, we use text from abstracts about genes to (i) resolve hierarchical cluster boundaries to optimize the functional coherence of the clusters and (ii) recognize those clusters that are most functionally coherent. In the case where a gene has not been investigated and therefore lacks primary literature, articles about well-studied homologous genes are added as references. We apply our method to two large gene expression data sets with different properties. The first contains measurements for a subset of well-studied Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes with multiple literature references, and the second contains newly discovered genes in Drosophila melanogaster; many have no literature references at all. In both cases, we are able to rapidly define and identify the biologically relevant gene expression profiles without manual intervention. In both cases, we identified novel clusters that were not noted by the original investigators.

Gene expression during the life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster

Molecular genetic studies of Drosophila melanogaster have led to profound advances in understanding the regulation of development. Here we report gene expression patterns for nearly one-third of all Drosophila genes during a complete time course of development. Mutations that eliminate eye or germline tissue were used to further analyze tissue-specific gene expression programs. These studies define major characteristics of the transcriptional programs that underlie the life cycle, compare development in males and females, and show that large-scale gene expression data collected from whole animals can be used to identify genes expressed in particular tissues and organs or genes involved in specific biological and biochemical processes.

stumps, a Drosophila gene required for fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-directed migrations of tracheal and mesodermal cells

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) bind to FGF receptors, transmembrane tyrosine kinases that activate mitogenic, motogenic, and differentiative responses in different tissues. While there has been substantial progress in elucidating the Ras-MAP kinase pathway that mediates the differentiative responses, the signal transduction pathways that lead to directed cell migrations are not well defined. Here we describe a Drosophila gene called stumps that is required for FGF-dependent migrations of tracheal and mesodermal cells. These migrations are controlled by different FGF ligands and receptors, and they occur by different cellular mechanisms: the tracheal migrations occur as part of an epithelium whereas the mesodermal migrations are fibroblast-like. In the stumps mutant, tracheal cells fail to move out from the epithelial sacs, and only rudimentary tracheal branches form. Mesodermal cells fail in their dorsal migrations after gastrulation. The stumps mutation does not block all FGF signaling effects in these tissues: both random cell migrations and Ras-MAP kinase-mediated induction of FGF-specific effector genes occurred upon ectopic expression of the ligand or upon expression of a constitutively activated Ras protein in the migrating cells. The results suggest that stumps function promotes FGF-directed cell migrations, either by potentiating the FGF signaling process or by coupling the signal to the cellular machinery required for directed cell movement.