1.Effect of Jianpi Yichang Powder on the Expression of NLRP3 Inflammasome Signaling Pathway of Dendritic Cells Induced by TNF-α
Xiaoyuan LIN ; Longbiao CHEN ; Peiwen LUO ; Sainan ZHOU ; Jiemin LIU
Chinese Journal of Information on Traditional Chinese Medicine 2024;31(10):109-114
Objective To investigate the effects of Jianpi Yichang Powder on regulating the NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway to inhibit dendritic cells(DCs)inflammatory injury induced by TNF-α;To explore its mechanism in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.Methods C57BL/6 mice DCs were primitively isolated and cultured.The cultured DCs were randomly divided into the normal group,model group,negative control group,positive drug group and TCM group.DCs inflammatory microenvironment model was established by TNF-α induction.After corresponding treatments were given to each group,CCK-8 method was used to detect cell proliferation ability,immunofluorescence and Western blot were used to detect the protein expressions of NLRP3,ASC and Caspase-1 in DCs respectively,Western blot and RT-PCR were used to detect the protein and mRNA expressions of IL-1β and IL-18 in DCs.Results Compared with the normal group,the proliferation ability in DCs of model group significantly decreased(P<0.01),the positive expressions of NLRP3,ASC and Caspase-1 significantly increased,the expressions of NLRP3,ASC,Caspase-1,IL-18,IL-1β protein and IL-18,IL-1β mRNA in DCs significantly increased(P<0.01).Compared with the model group and negative control group,the proliferation ability of DCs significantly increased in positive drug group and TCM group(P<0.01),the positive expressions of NLRP3,ASC,and Caspase-1 significantly decreased(P<0.01),the protein expressions of NLRP3,ASC,Caspase-1,IL-1β and IL-18 significantly decreased(P<0.05,P<0.01),and the mRNA expressions of IL-1β and IL-18 significantly decreased(P<0.01).The cell proliferation ability,Caspase-1 positive expression,and IL-18 mRNA expression of TCM group were significantly higher than those of the positive drug group(P<0.05),while the mRNA expression of IL-1β was lower than that of the positive drug group(P<0.05).Conclusion Jianpi Yichang Powder can inhibit the inflammatory response of DCs induced by TNF-α,and its mechanism in the treatment of ulcerative colitis may be related to regulating the expressions of the NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway,including the expressions of NLRP3,ASC,Caspase-1,IL-18 and IL-1β.
2.Analysis of the potential role of TMOD3 in recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma
Longbiao Luo ; Hui Jiang ; Dandan Ma ; Hangwei Fu ; Weiwei Sun
Acta Universitatis Medicinalis Anhui 2024;59(12):2094-2102
Objective:
To investigate the relationship between tropomodulin 3(TMOD3) and the malignant biological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma, and the predictive potential of TMOD3 as a biomarker for the recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods:
Firstly, the structure of TMOD3 and its subcellular localization in cells and tissues were analyzed using database of Human Protein Atlas. Then explored the differential expression of TMOD3 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and normal liver tissues and its impact on clinical pathological characteristics and prognosis using TCGA and GEO datasets. Subsequently, the STRING database was utilized to explore the interacting proteins of TMOD3, followed by enrichment analysis conducted using the Metascape database. Finally, Logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors for metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma and evaluated the importance of predictive variables using ROC curves and Wald tests. Survival analysis was conducted using the Kaplan-Meier curve and the Log-rank test.
Results:
TMOD3 was localized to actin filaments in cells, and compared with normal tissues, the expression level of TMOD3 in liver cancer tissues is higher(P<0.05), and high expression of TMOD3 was closely related to lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients(P<0.05). Enrichment analysis results revealed that TMOD3 and its interacting proteins mainly function and signaling pathways related to tumor invasion and migration. Logistic regression found that TMOD3 was an independent risk factor for recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma(OR: 4.359, 95%CI: 1.235-15.384,P=0.022). Survival analysis revealed that high expression of TMOD3 was associated with poor OS, DFS, and RFS of hepatocellular carcinoma patients(P<0.05). Both ROC analysis and Wald test indicated that TMOD3 has good predictive characteristics for recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Conclusion
TMOD3 is closely associated with the invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma and is an independent risk factor for the recurrence and metastasis of liver cancer. TMOD3 performs well in predicting the recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma and has the potential to become a biomarker for predicting the recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.