Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a ligand activated transcription factor, plays many essential roles of biological function in higher organisms. The PPARgamma is mainly expressed in adipose tissue. It regulates the transcriptional activity of genes by binding with other transcription factor. The PPARgamma coding region has been found to be closest to that of monkey in ours and other research groups. Thus, monkey is a more suitable animal model for future PPARgamma studying, although mice and rat are frequently being used. The PPARgamma is involved in regulating alterations of adipose tissue masses result from changes in mature adipocyte size and/or number through a complex interplay process called adipogenesis. However, the role of PPARgamma in negatively regulating the process of adipogenesis remains unclear. This review may help we investigate the differential expression of key transcription factor in adipose tissue in response to visceral obesity-induced diet in vivo. The study may also provide valuable information to define a more appropriate physiological condition in adipogenesis which may help to prevent diseases cause by negative regulation of the transcription factors in adipose tissue.
Physalin F (a secosteroid derivative), is well recognized as a potent anticancer compound from Physalis minima L., a plant that is traditionally used to treat cancer. However, the exact molecular anticancer mechanism remains to be elucidated.
Previous cytotoxic (anticancer) evaluations ofElephantopus molliswere mainly focused on its elephantopin derivatives neglecting the combined effect of the phytochemicals in its traditionally used extracts. In this study, the cytotoxic mechanism of its extracts was investigated using methylene blue assay. The cytotoxic screening results revealed the ethyl acetate extract as the most potent extract by displaying prominent dose-dependent and time-dependent growth inhibitions in human liver carcinoma HepG2 cells with the lowest EC50value of 9.38 ± 0.43 µg/mL after 72 hours of treatment. Acute exposure of the HepG2 cells to the ethyl acetate extract produced a significant regulation of caspase-3 with the peak expression at 8 hours of treatment (P< .05). DNA fragmentation indicated by DeadEnd Apoptosis Detection System-labeled nuclei cells confirmed that the extract induced apoptotic cell death through caspase-3-dependent pathway in HepG2 cells.
The decoction of the whole plant of Elephantopus mollis Kunth. is traditionally consumed to treat various free radical-mediated diseases including cancer and diabetes.
The chloroform extract of Physalis minima produced a significant growth inhibition against human T-47D breast carcinoma cells as compared with other extracts with an EC(50) value of 3.8 microg/mL. An analysis of cell death mechanisms indicated that the extract elicited an apoptotic cell death. mRNA expression analysis revealed the coregulation of apoptotic genes, that is, c-myc , p53, and caspase-3. The c-myc was significantly induced by the chloroform extract at the earlier phase of treatment, followed by p53 and caspase-3. Biochemical assay and ultrastructural observation displayed typical apoptotic features in the treated cells, including DNA fragmentation, blebbing and convolution of cell membrane, clumping and margination of chromatin, and production of membrane-bound apoptotic bodies. The presence of different stages of apoptotic cell death and phosphatidylserine externalization were further reconfirmed by annexin V and propidium iodide staining. Thus, the results from this study strongly suggest that the chloroform extract of P. minima induced apoptotic cell death via p53-, caspase-3-, and c-myc-dependent pathways.
The decoction of the whole plant of Physalis minima L. is traditionally consumed to treat cancer. Its anticancer property has been previously verified (using in vitro cytotoxicity assays) against NCI-H23 lung, CORL23 lung and MCF7 breast cancer cell lines but the mechanism underlying the anticancer potency towards ovarian carcinoma cells remain unclear.
Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha has been implicated as a regulator of acute phase response genes in hepatocytes. Interleukin-6 is widely known as a major cytokine responsible in the regulation of acute phase proteins and, therefore, acute phase response. Unfortunately, to date, very little is understood about the molecular mechanisms by which interleukin-6 regulates the gene expression of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha. Here, we report the molecular mechanisms by which peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha was regulated by interleukin-6 in human HepG2 cells. Interleukin-6 was shown to down-regulate the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha gene expression at the level of gene transcription. Functional dissection of human peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha promoter B revealed the role of predicted CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein binding site (-164/+34) in mediating the interleukin-6 inhibitory effects on peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha mRNA expression and electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed the binding of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein isoforms to this cis-acting elements was increased in interleukin-6-treated HepG2 cells. Co-transfection experiments, then, demonstrated that CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta either in homodimer or heterodimer with CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein delta plays a predominant role in inhibiting the transcriptional activity of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha promoter B, thus, reducing the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha mRNA expression. These studies, therefore, suggest a novel mechanism for interleukin-6-mediated inhibition of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha gene expression that involves the activation of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein isoforms with CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta may play a major role.
Epipremnum pinnatum (L.) Engl. hexane extract produced a significant growth inhibition against T-47D breast carcinoma cells and analysis of cell death mechanisms indicated that the extract elicited a non-apoptotic programmed cell death. T-47D cells exposed to the extract at EC(50) concentration (72 h) for 24 h failed to demonstrate typical DNA fragmentation associated with apoptosis, as carried out using a modified TUNEL assay. In addition, acute exposure to the extract produced an insignificant regulation of caspase-3 and p53 mRNA expression but increased in the c-myc mRNA expression. Ultrastructural analysis using transmission electron microscope demonstrated distinct vacuolated cells, which strongly indicated a Type II non-apoptotic cell death although the changes in chromatin were also detected. The presence of non-apoptotic programmed cell death was then reconfirmed with annexin-V and propidium iodide staining. These findings suggested that up-regulation of c-myc mRNA expression may have contributed to the growth arrest and Type II non-apoptotic programmed cell death in the Epipremnum pinnatum (L.) Engl. hexane extract-treated T-47D cells.
The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide induces DDIT3-dependent endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated autophagy in T-47D breast carcinoma cells", which the mechanistic toxicology properties of 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide (14-DDA) were investigated (Tan et al., 2016 [1]). This article describes the derivation of cytotoxic parameters of 14-DDA, cell viability data after double transfection and DDIT3 silencing in T-47D cells.
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) is a ligand-activated transcriptional factor that governs many biological processes, including lipid metabolism, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. We demonstrate here the existence of six variants and multiple transcriptional start sites of the 5(') untranslated region (UTR) of hPPARalpha gene, originating from the use of alternative splicing mechanisms and four different promoters. Three new novel exons at the 5(')-untranslated region of human PPARalpha gene were also identified and designated as Exon A, Exon B, and Exon 2b. In addition, 1.2kb promoter fragment which drives the transcription of 2 variants with Exon B (hPPARalpha4 and 6) was successfully cloned and characterised. Sequencing results revealed promoter B did not contain a conservative TATA box within the first 100 nucleotides from transcriptional start site but has several GC-rich regions and putative Sp1 sites. Using luciferase reporter constructs transfected into HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines, promoter B was shown to be functionally active. Basal transcriptional activity was significantly high in the promoter fragment -341/+34, but lower in the region -341/-1147 as compared to the fragment -341/+34, indicating the presence of an element conferring transcriptional activation between positions -341 and +34 or alternatively, the presence of transcriptional repression between positions -341 and -1147 in the promoter B of hPPARalpha.
The coding region of guinea pig peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma1 (gpPPARgamma1) cDNA was successfully cloned from adipose tissue by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using the designated primers based on the conserved regions of the other mammalian PPARgamma1 sequence. From RT-PCR, a combination of three cDNA fragments that comprised of the full length coding region PPARgamma1 cDNA gene were amplified, with the size of 498, 550 and 557 bp, respectively. All three fragments were then successfully assembled by utilising the internal restriction sites present at the overlapping regions to give rise to the full-length coding region of gpPPARgamma1 with the size of 1428 bp and consisting of 475 amino acids. Guinea pig PPARgamma1 is highly conserved with those of other species at protein and nucleotide levels. Gene expression studies showed that gpPPARgamma mRNA was predominantly expressed in adipose tissue followed by lung and spleen. However, at the protein level, PPARgamma was also found to be expressed in skeletal muscle.
Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved lysosomal degradation pathway and plays a critical role in the homeostatic process of recycling proteins and organelles. Functional relationships have been described between apoptosis and autophagy. Perturbations in the apoptotic machinery have been reported to induce autophagic cell deaths. Inhibition of autophagy in cancer cells has resulted in cell deaths that manifested hallmarks of apoptosis. However, the molecular relationships and the circumstances of which molecular pathways dictate the choice between apoptosis and autophagy are currently unknown. This study aims to identify specific gene expression of rapamycin-induced autophagy and the effects of rapamycin when the autophagy process is inhibited. In this study, we have demonstrated that rapamycin is capable of inducing autophagy in T-47D breast carcinoma cells. However, when the autophagy process was inhibited by 3-MA, the effects of rapamycin became apoptotic. The Phlda1 gene was found to be up-regulated in both autophagy and apoptosis and silencing this gene was found to reduce both activities, strongly suggests that Phlda1 mediates and positively regulates both autophagy and apoptosis pathways.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is the major activator of the acute phase response (APR). One important regulator of IL-6-activated APR is peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα). Currently, there is a growing interest in determining the role of PPARα in regulating APR; however, studies on the molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways implicated in mediating the effects of IL-6 on the expression of PPARα are limited. We previously revealed that IL-6 inhibits PPARα gene expression through CAAT/enhancer-binding protein transcription factors in hepatocytes. In this study, we determined that STAT1/3 was the direct downstream molecules that mediated the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathways in IL-6-induced repression of PPARα. Treatment of cells with pharmacological inhibitors of JAK2, PI3K, AKT, and mTOR attenuated the inhibitory effect of IL-6 on PPARα protein in a dose-dependent manner. These inhibitors also decreased the IL-6-induced repression of PPARα mRNA expression and promoter activity. Overexpression of STAT1 and STAT3 in HepG2 cells cotransfected with a reporter vector containing this PPARα promoter region revealed that both the expression plasmids inhibited the IL-6-induced repression of PPARα promoter activity. In the presence of inhibitors of JAK2 and mTOR (AG490 and rapamycin, respectively), IL-6-regulated protein expression and DNA binding of STAT1 and STAT3 were either completely or partially inhibited simultaneously, and the IL-6-induced repression of PPARα protein and mRNA was also inhibited. This study has unraveled novel pathways by which IL-6 inhibits PPARα gene transcription, involving the modulation of JAK2/STAT1-3 and PI3K/AKT/mTOR by inducing the binding of STAT1 and STAT3 to STAT-binding sites on the PPARα promoter. Together, these findings represent a new model of IL-6-induced suppression of PPARα expression by inducing STAT1 and STAT3 phosphorylation and subsequent down-regulation of PPARα mRNA expression.
Breast cancer is amongst frequently diagnosed cancer type throughout the world. Due to reduced efficacy of current chemotherapeutics, several natural products have been screened for better alternatives. The cytotoxic activity of fractions prepared from leaves extract of Vitex rotundifolia (V. rotundifolia) on human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7 was studied. The fractions F1, F2, F3, and F5 of V. rotundifolia produced concentration-dependent cytotoxic effects on MCF-7 cell line. The relative potential of cytotoxicity of the fractions on MCF-7 cell line was found to be F3 > F2 > F5 > F1. The active fractions induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cell line determined by annexin V base assay. The phosphatidylserine externalization and the presence of DNA fragmentation in treated cells confirms the early and late apoptosis in treated cells. The V. rotundifolia fractions induced apoptosis by both pathways; extrinsic pathways via activation of caspase-8 and intrinsic pathways through enhanced bax/bcl-2 ratio and activation of caspase-3/7 and caspase-9 proapoptotic proteins. Furthermore, chemical profiling indicates various phenolic, flavonoids, and terpenoids compounds in the active fractions. Thus, V. rotundifolia might be a suitable candidate to investigate further and develop molecular targeted cancer therapeutics by understanding the fundamental mechanisms involved in the regulation of cell death in cancer cells.
Physalis minima L. is reputed for having anticancer property. In this study, the chloroform extract of this plant exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activities on NCI-H23 (human lung adenocarcinoma) cell line at dose- and time-dependent manners (after 24, 48 and 72 h of incubation). Analysis of cell-death mechanism demonstrated that the extract exerted apoptotic programed cell death in NCI-H23 cells with typical DNA fragmentation, which is a biochemical hallmark of apoptosis. Morphological observation using transmission electron microscope (TEM) also displayed apoptotic characteristics in the treated cells, including clumping and margination of chromatins, followed by convolution of the nuclear and budding of the cells to produce membrane-bound apoptotic bodies. Different stages of apoptotic programed cell death as well as phosphatidylserine externalization were confirmed using annexin V and propidium iodide staining. Furthermore, acute exposure to the extract produced a significant regulation of c-myc, caspase-3 and p53 mRNA expression in this cell line. Due to its apoptotic effect on NCI-H23 cells, it is strongly suggested that the extract could be further developed as an anticancer drug.
Numerous documented ethnopharmacological properties have been associated with Swietenia macrophylla (Meliaceae), with its seed extract reported to display anti-hypoglycemic activities in diabetic rats. In the present study, three compounds isolated from the seeds of S. macrophylla were tested on a modified ELISA binding assay and showed to possess PPARγ ligand activity. They were corresponded to PPARγ-mediated cellular response, stimulated adipocyte differentiation but produced lower amount of fat droplets compared to a conventional anti-diabetic agent, rosiglitazone. The up-regulation of adipocytes was followed by increased adipocyte-related gene expressions such as adiponectin, adipsin, and PPARγ. The S. macrophylla compounds also promoted cellular glucose uptake via the translocation of GLUT4 glucose transporter.
In vitro and in vivo studies of the activity of Phaleria macrocarpa Boerl (Thymelaeaceae) leaves against the therapeutic target for hypercholesterolemia were done using the HDL receptor (SR-BI) and hypercholesterolemia-induced Sprague Dawley rats. The in vitro study showed that the active fraction (CF6) obtained from the ethyl acetate extract (EMD) and its component 2',6',4-trihydroxy-4'-methoxybenzophenone increased the SR-BI expression by 95% and 60%, respectively. The in vivo study has proven the effect of EMD at 0.5 g/kgbw dosage in reducing the total cholesterol level by 224.9% and increasing the HDL cholesterol level by 157% compared to the cholesterol group. In the toxicity study, serum glutamate oxalate transaminase (SGOT) and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) activity were observed to be at normal levels. The liver histology also proved no toxicity and abnormalities in any of the treatment groups, so it can be categorized as non-toxic to the rat liver. The findings taken together show that P. macrocarpa leaves are safe and suitable as an alternative control and prevention treatment for hypercholesterolemia in Sprague Dawley rats.
The juice of the entire fresh herb and infusion of dried sample of Murdannia bracteata are consumed to treat liver cancer and diabetes in Malaysia. However, no scientific evidence of these bioactivities has been reported.
A multiplex RT-qPCR was developed to examine CYP1A2, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 induction properties of compounds from food and herbal sources. The induction of drug metabolizing enzymes is an important pharmacokinetic interaction with unique features in comparison with inhibition of metabolizing enzymes. Cytochrome induction can lead to serious drug-drug or drug-food interactions, especially if the coadministered drug plasma level is critical as it can reduce therapeutic effects and cause complications. Using this optimized multiplex RT-qPCR, cytochrome induction properties of andrographolide, curcumin, lycopene, bergamottin, and resveratrol were determined. Andrographolide, curcumin, and lycopene produced no significant induction effects on CYP1A2, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4. However, bergamottin appeared to be a significant in vitro CYP1A2 inducer starting from 5 to 50 μmol/L with induction ranging from 60 to 100-fold changes. On the other hand, resveratrol is a weak in vitro CYP1A2 inducer. Examining the cytochrome induction properties of food and herbal compounds help complement CYP inhibition studies and provide labeling and safety caution for such products.
Teleosts are useful vertebrate model species for understanding copper toxicity due to the dual entry route for copper intake via the gills and intestine. In this present study, we utilized the differential display reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to isolate potential novel hepatic genes induced by sublethal copper exposure in the freshwater swordtail fish, Xiphophorus helleri. Full length cloning of a cDNA fragment induced by copper exposure to 1 μg/ml during 24 h resulted in the positive identification of a hepatic ribosomal protein L19 (RPL19) gene. Further characterization of this gene revealed that its transcriptional expression was dependent on dosage and time of copper exposure. This study describes for the first time the involvement of RPL19 in copper toxicity, probably as a result of increase in ribosome synthesis rate to support activities such as cellular protein translation, transcriptional activation and mRNA stabilization during sublethal copper exposure.