Huaping Liang

Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1 Enhances Wound Healing through Recruiting Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to the Wound Area and Promoting Neovascularization

Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) is a potent chemokine for bone marrow-derived stromal stem cells (BMSCs) that express CXCR4, the receptor for SDF-1. SDF-1 is considered to play an important role in the trafficking of BMSCs. We investigated the contribution of SDF-1 to the recruitment of BMSCs to the wound area and its promotion of wound repair and neovascularization. BMSCs were pretreated with or without anti-CXCR4 blocking antibody and combined with CM-DiI label, and injected via the tail vein into mice with full-thickness skin wounds on the dorsum. Simultaneously, anti-SDF-1 antibody was injected into local wounds in another group of mice. The results show that blockade of CXCR4 on either infused BMSCs or SDF-1 in the host wounds (1) dramatically impaired the number of infused BMSCs being recruited to the injured tissue, (2) reduced the expression of growth factors involved in the repair of injured tissue such as vascular endothelial growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor and transforming growth factor beta 1, (3) decreased the resultant neovascularization, and (4) retarded wound healing. Taken together, the findings indicate that the SDF-1/CXCR4 signal pathway facilitates wound healing through augmenting BMSC recruitment to wound tissues, responsive secretion of growth factors by BMSCs and neovascularization in the wound area.

Pharmacological Actions of Multi-Target-Directed Evodiamine

Evodiamine, a naturally occurring indole alkaloid, is one of the main bioactive ingredients of Evodiae fructus. With respect to the pharmacological actions of evodiamine, more attention has been paid to beneficial effects in insults involving cancer, obesity, nociception, inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimers disease, infectious diseases and themoregulative effects. evodiamine has evolved a superior ability to bind various proteins, so we also argue that it is good starting point for multi-target drugs. This review is primarily addressed to the description of the recent advances in the biological activity studies of evodiamine, with a focus on pharmacological mechanism. The present review also includes the pharmacokinetics and the detailed exploration of target-binding properties of evodiamine in an attempt to provide a direction for further multi-target drug design.

The clinical applications of curcumin: current state and the future.

Curcumin is a natural polyphenol product derived from the rhizome of the Curcuma longa. In vivo and in vitro studies have uncovered many important bioactivities of curcumin, such as antioxidant activity, inducing cell apoptosis, inhibiting cell proliferation, anti-cell adhesion and motility, anti-angiogenesis and anti-microbe properties. Based on these functions, curcumin has been used in clinical trials on various inflammatory diseases and cancers. In the future, it will be necessary to focus attention partly on the clinical application of curcumin in neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, because many experiments have clarified the potential value of curcumin in these areas. As a diet-derived agent, curcumin has no severe toxicity except for minor gastrointestinal side effects even up to the dosage of 8 grams for 3 months. However, curcumin has a low systemic bioavailability, so it is imperative to improve the bioavailability of curcumin in its clinical application. Many methods, such as adjuvant drug delivery system and structural modification have been demonstrated to have a potential effect.

Evodiamine induces caspase-dependent apoptosis and S phase arrest in human colon lovo cells

Evodiamine, one of the major bioactive components derived from Wu-Chu-Yu, a long-standing Chinese herb, was reported to possess anticancer activity. In this study, we investigated the in-vitro and in-vivo anticancer effects of evodiamine on human colon lovo cells and their potential mechanisms. The 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay showed that the in-vitro proliferation of lovo cells was inhibited by evodiamine of various concentrations. Flow cytometry showed a time-dependent increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells and cells arrested in the S phase after treatment with 60 μmol/l evodiamine. Western blot indicated that evodiamine treatment decreased the expression of procaspase-8, procaspase-9, and procaspase-3 in lovo cells, accompanied by the activation of caspase-8, caspase-9, and caspase-3. However, the translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor and endonuclease G was not affected by evodiamine. Moreover, western blot assay also suggested that evodiamine-induced S phase arrest in lovo cells was associated with a marked decrease in the protein expression of cyclinA, cyclinA-dependent kinase 2, and cdc25c. In-vivo antineoplastic characteristics of evodiamine were examined in a human colon carcinoma lovo xenograft model and results showed that evodiamine increased the number of TUNEL-positive cells accompanied by the downregulated expression of procaspase-8, procaspase-9, and procaspase-3. In conclusion, these findings indicated that evodiamine could inhibit the in-vitro and in-vivo proliferation of human colon lovo cells by inducing caspase-dependent apoptosis and S phase arrest.

A cell-penetrating peptide suppresses inflammation by inhibiting NF-κB signaling.

Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is a central regulator of immune response and a potential target for developing anti-inflammatory agents. Mechanistic studies suggest that compounds that directly inhibit NF-κB DNA binding may block inflammation and the associated tissue damage. Thus, we attempted to discover peptides that could interfere with NF-κB signaling based on a highly conserved DNA-binding domain found in all NF-κB members. One such small peptide, designated as anti-inflammatory peptide-6 (AIP6), was characterized in the current study. AIP6 directly interacted with p65 and displayed an intrinsic cell-penetrating property. This peptide demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory effects in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, AIP6 inhibited the DNA-binding and transcriptional activities of the p65 NF-κB subunit as well as the production of inflammatory mediators in macrophages upon stimulation. Local administration of AIP6 significantly inhibited inflammation induced by zymosan in mice. Collectively, our results suggest that AIP6 is a promising lead peptide for the development of specific NF-κB inhibitors as potential anti-inflammatory agents.

Alterations of Dendritic Cells in Sepsis: Featured Role in Immunoparalysis

Sepsis, the leading cause of mortality in intensive care unit, is characterized by hyperinflammatory response in the early stage and followed by a period of immunosuppression. This immune disorder is believed to be the potent factor that is tightly associated with high mortality in sepsis. Dendritic cells (DCs) serve as professional antigen-presenting cells that play a vital role in immune response by activating T lymphocytes. During the progression of sepsis, DCs have been reported to take part in the aberrant immune response and be necessary for survival. Therefore, a better understanding of the DCs pathology will be undoubtedly beneficial for resolving the problems occurring in sepsis. This review discusses effects of sepsis on DCs number and function, including surface molecules expression, cytokines secretion, and T cell activation, and the underlying mechanism as well as some potential therapeutic strategies.

Agmatine Reduces Lipopolysaccharide-Mediated Oxidant Response via Activating PI3K/Akt Pathway and Up-Regulating Nrf2 and HO-1 Expression in Macrophages.

Macrophages are key responders of inflammation and are closely related with oxidative stress. Activated macrophages can enhance oxygen depletion, which causes an overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and leads to further excessive inflammatory response and tissue damage. Agmatine, an endogenous metabolite of L-arginine, has recently been shown to have neuroprotective effects based on its antioxidant properties. However, the antioxidant effects of agmatine in peripheral tissues and cells, especially macrophages, remain unclear. In this study we explored the role of agmatine in mediating antioxidant effects in RAW 264.7 cells and studied its antioxidant mechanism. Our data demonstrate that agmatine is an activator of Nrf2 signaling that markedly enhances Nrf2 nuclear translocation, increases nuclear Nrf2 protein level, up-regulates the expression of the Nrf2 downstream effector HO-1, and attenuates ROS generation induced by Lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We further demonstrated that the agmatine-induced activation of Nrf2 is likely through the PI3K/Akt pathway. LY294002, a specific PI3K/Akt inhibitor, abolished agmatine-induced HO-1 up-regulation and ROS suppression significantly. Inhibiting HO-1 pathway significantly attenuated the antioxidant effect of agmatine which the products of HO-1 enzymatic activity contributed to. Furthermore, the common membrane receptors of agmatine were evaluated, revealing that α2-adrenoceptor, I1-imidazoline receptor or I2-imidazoline receptor are not required by the antioxidant properties of agmatine. Taken together, our findings revealed that agmatine has antioxidant activity against LPS-induced ROS accumulation in RAW 264.7 cells involving HO-1 expression induced by Nrf2 via PI3K/Akt pathway activation.

Binding Mode Prediction of Evodiamine within Vanilloid Receptor TRPV1

Accurate assessment of the potential binding mode of drugs is crucial to computer-aided drug design paradigms. It has been reported that evodiamine acts as an agonist of the vanilloid receptor Transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1). However, the precise interaction between evodiamine and TRPV1 was still not fully understood. In this perspective, the homology models of TRPV1 were generated using the crystal structure of the voltage-dependent shaker family K+ channel as a template. We then performed docking and molecular dynamics simulation to gain a better understanding of the probable binding modes of evodiamine within the TRPV1 binding pocket. There are no significant interspecies differences in evodiamine binding in rat, human and rabbit TRPV1 models. Pharmacophore modeling further provided confidence for the validity of the docking studies. This study is the first to shed light on the structural determinants required for the interaction between TRPV1 and evodiamine, and gives new suggestions for the rational design of novel TRPV1 ligands.

Evodiamine as a novel antagonist of aryl hydrocarbon receptor

Evodiamine, the major bioactive alkaloid isolated from Wu-Chu-Yu, has been shown to interact with a wide variety of proteins and modify their expression and activities. In this study, we investigated the interaction between evodiamine and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Molecular modeling results revealed that evodiamine directly interacted with the AhR. Cytosolic receptor binding assay also provided the evidence that evodiamine could interact with the AhR with the K(i) value of 28.4±4.9nM. In addition, we observed that evodiamine suppressed the 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) induced nuclear translocation of the AhR and the expression of CYP1A1 dose-dependently. These results suggested that evodiamine was able to bind to the AhR as ligand and exhibit antagonistic effects.

Evodiamine activates autophagy as a cytoprotective response in murine Lewis lung carcinoma cells

Autophagy is a self-defense mechanism that provides nutrition and energy for cell survival by recycling the cytoplasm and organelles. Hence, chemotherapy is rendered less effective against cancer cells. Evodiamine is a previously described biological agent that possesses a cytotoxic activity in multiple cancer cells. However, little is known about evodiamine-induced autophagy in Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells. In this study, LLC cells and a xenograft model were used. By use of a panel of techniques such as MTT assay, flow cytometry, western blotting, immunocytochemistry and TUNEL assay, the effects on the induction of apoptosis and autophagy were evaluated. We demonstrated that evodiamine inhibited LLC cell growth and induced apoptosis through caspase-independent manner in vitro and caspase-dependent pathway in vivo. In addition, we showed for the first time that evodiamine promoted autophagosome formation by enhancing the conversion of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3)-I to LC3-II and upregulating the expression of autophagy-specific genes (Atgs). Moreover, 3-methyladenine (3-MA), an autophagy inhibitor, attenuated evodiamine-induced autophagy through decreasing the conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II. The inhibition of autophagy was found to increase cell death and enhance evodiamine-induced apoptosis in vitro in a caspase-independent manner and in vivo in a caspase-dependent manner. In conclusion, evodiamine promoted autophagy in LLC cells and autophagy inhibition enhanced evodiamine-induced apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate that evodiamine-induced autophagy plays a cytoprotective role in LLC cells and evodiamine combined with autophagy inhibitor therapy could increase the chemosensitivity of LLC cells.