ABSTRACT
There are more than 60 million alcoholic liver disease (ALD) patients in China, which has become a public health problem that cannot be ignored. Moreover, the social problem of "alcohol culture" is still hardly to solve, so that safe and effective prevention and treatment for ALD are in urgent need clinically. Previous studies on ALD have focused on the direct damaging effects of alcohol and its toxic metabolites, while recent studies have shown that the pathogenesis of ALD also include alcohol metabolic reprogramming and endogenous metabolites disorder. Although the endogenous metabolites have no direct toxicity, its long-term effect should not be ignored. These endogenous metabolites could change epigenetic modifications, cause widespread and persistent abnormal gene expression and signal pathway activation abnormally to promote metabolic reprogramming and stamp it as "metabolic memory", which manifest pathological changes and promote ALD, especially liver fibrosis/cirrhosis and liver cancer. Based on this, the article reviews the important epigenetic modifications caused by related metabolites in ALD and their associated effects. The role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its active ingredients in regulating epigenetics was also analyzed. The results suggest that regulation of epigenetics and alteration of "metabolic memory" may be a novel mechanism of TCM in the prevention and treatment of ALD.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effect of fibronectin type Ⅲ and SPRY domain containing 1 (FSD1) protein on the invasion of glioma stem cells (GSCs), so as to probe into the new biomarkers or potential therapeutic targets for gliomas. Methods The Cancer Genome Altas (TCGA) database data were used to analyze and compare the FSD1 gene expression (the FSD1 mRNA level) in the glioblatoma (also known as glioblastoma multiforme, GBM) and normal brain tissues as well as in the different grade glioma tissues, and the correlation of the FDS1 gene expression (mRNA level) with the survival prognosis of patients was also analyzed using the TCGA database data. The lentivirus was used to overexpress the FSD1 protein in the GSCs, T4121 and D456. The effect of the overexpressed FSD1 protein on the invasive ability of the GSCs, T4121 and D456 was evaluated by Transwell invasion assay. Results The FSD1 gene expression (mRNA level) was significantly lower in GBM than in normal brain (P＜0.01). The FSD1 gene expression (the mRNA level) in gliomas significantly decreased with the increase of the gliomas grade (gradeⅡvs Ⅲ, P＜0.05;gradeⅢvs Ⅳ, P＜0.01). The survival prognosis of patients with gilomas was well associated with the level of FSD1 gene expression (the FSD1 mRNA level), as indicated by the overall survival rate of the patients, which was significantly lower in the patients with the low FSD1 mRNA level than in the patients with the high FSD1 mRNA level (P＜0.01). In the Transwell invasion assay, the count of the invasive cell numbers significantly decreased in the FSD1 protein-overexpressed T421 and D456 groups than in the corresponding control group (P＜0.01 in both T4121 and D456 cell lines). Conclusion There is a clinical relevance of the FSD1 expression for the malignant progression of gliomas (the grade of gliomas). The low level FSD1 is favorable for keeping the invasive ability in GSCs.