The delivery of bioactive macromolecular substances into cells provides an efficient approach to changing cellular conditions, and is thus of enormously potential therapeutic significance. It has also been an extremely difficult approach due the the impediment and protective nature of cell membrance until the protein transduction domain's (PTD's) capability to ferry macromolecule across cell membrance was discovered. PTD's efficient transductive function has rendered an exciting promise to the clinical treatment of diseases, therapeutic proteins drug development, and basic medical and applied research. The technology has been successfully applied to deliver a variety of substances into cells or tissue organs, and its superior application values have been explicitly demonstrated.
Cell Membrane Permeability ; physiology ; Drug Delivery Systems ; methods ; Genetic Therapy ; Humans ; Protein Sorting Signals ; Protein Transport ; physiology

The pregnane X receptor (PXR), a liver and intestine specific receptor,, has been reported to be related with the repression of inflammation as well as activation of cytochromosome P450 3A (CYP3A) expression. We examined the effect of PXR on tetrachloromethane (CCl4)-induced mouse liver inflammation in this work. Ginkgolide A, one main component of Ginkgo biloba extracts (GBE), activated PXR and enhanced PXR expression level, displayed both significant therapeutic effect and preventive effect against CCl4-induced mouse hepatitis. siRNA-mediated decrease of PXR expression significantly reduced the efficacy of Ginkgolide A in treating CCl4-induced inflammation in mice. Flavonoids, another important components of GBE, were shown anti-inflammatory effect in a different way from Ginkgolide A which might be independent on PXR because flavonoids significantly inhibited CYP3A11 activities in mice. The results indicated that anti-inflammatory effect of PXR might be mediated by enhancing transcription level of IkappaBalpha through binding of IkappaBalpha. Inhibition of NF-kappaB activity by NF-kappaB-specific suppressor IkappaBalpha is one of the potential mechanisms of Ginkgolide A against CCl4-induced liver inflammation.
Animals ; Carbon Tetrachloride* ; Flavonoids ; Ginkgo biloba ; Hepatitis ; Inflammation* ; Intestines ; Liver* ; Mice* ; NF-kappa B ; Repression, Psychology