ABSTRACT
Breast cancer is one of the common diseases among women. It is a malignant tumor with a variety of complex mechanisms. Its pathogenesis has not been clearly studied. Physical, chemical and surgical treatments often cause vomiting, nausea, dizziness and headache for women. As compared with traditional treatment, Chinese medicine is characterized by multiple targets, small side effect and good effect in treating breast cancer. In this paper, 85 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines that can treat breast cancer were included. Among them, 69 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines have been included in the 2015 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and 16 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines have not been included. The main medicinal ingredients in these Chinese herbal medicines for treatment of breast cancer were alkaloids, glycosides, phenols, terpenes, carbohydrates, volatile oils, coumarins and so on. In addition, these herbal medicines were classified according to their effects in breast cancer. Then, combined with the recent studies at home and abroad, this paper summarized the effect of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) on breast cancer, including the reversal of multi-drug resistance, the inhibition of metastasis and proliferation, the induction of tumor cell apoptosis, and the arrest of the cell cycle for breast cancer. This paper also explained three pathways for treating breast cancer by TCM, including intervening the tumor cell related apoptosis gene to inhibit breast cancer, inhibiting the expression of P-glycoprotein in the cell membrane to reverse the multi-drug resistance of breast cancer cells, and regulating the related epithelial mesenchymal transition signal pathway to prevent breast cancer cells metastasis and proliferation. In the end, it was concluded that Chinese medicine can reduce the drug resistance and metastasis of breast cancer cells, block the cell cycle of breast cancer cells, and also intervene the expression of apoptotic factors to promote the death of breast cancer cells. The inhibition of breast cancer by Chinese medicine was the result of the common effect of various ingredients. Therefore, Chinese medicine treatment for breast cancer has the unparalleled advantages as compared with chemical and surgical treatment. Chinese medicine is one of our important means to overcome breast cancer.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>Objective</b>A comprehensive review of the network regulation of exosomes and microRNAs (miRNAs) in neurodegenerative diseases was done, centering on the mechanism of the formation of exosomes and miRNAs and the sorting mechanism of exosomal miRNAs, with the aim to provide a theoretical basis in the search of biomarkers and the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.</p><p><b>Data Sources</b>The comprehensive search used online literature databases including NCBI PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Baidu Scholar.</p><p><b>Study Selection</b>The study selection was based on the following keywords: exosomes, miRNAs, central nervous system (CNS), and neurodegenerative diseases. The time limit for literature retrieval was from the year 2000 to 2018, with language restriction in English. Relevant articles were carefully reviewed, with no exclusions applied to study design and publication type.</p><p><b>Results</b>Exosomes are the smallest nanoscale membranous microvesicles secreted by cells and contain important miRNAs, among other rich contents. In the CNS, exosomes can transport amyloid β-protein, α-synuclein, Huntington-associated protein 1, and superoxide dismutase I to other cells. These events relieve the abnormal accumulation of proteins and aggravating neurological diseases. In some neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, miRNAs are pathologically altered as an inexorable course, suggesting that miRNAs may contribute neurodegeneration. Exosomes and miRNAs form a network to regulate the homeostasis of the CNS, both synergistically and individually.</p><p><b>Conclusion</b>The network of exosomes and miRNAs that regulates CNS homeostasis is a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Alzheimer Disease , Amyloid beta-Peptides , Exosomes , MicroRNAs , Neurodegenerative Diseases , Genetics , MetabolismABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Human neuronal calcium sensor-1 (NCS-1) protein with a high charge is extremely sensitive to solution temperature, but whether the change of ion concentration in the solution can change the protein structure and affect the physiological function has not been reported. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the molecular mechanism of variations of sodium chloride concentration altering conformational dynamics of human NCS-1. METHODS: Through molecular dynamics simulation, the first two minimum energy models (PDB id: 2LCP) were utilized as the starting states of each independent molecular dynamics simulation of the human NCS-1 protein. After energy minimization, two different initial structures were used to conduct three independent 500 ns molecular dynamics simulations with explicit solvent for human NCS-1 protein at 0.1, 0.3 and 1 mol/L sodium chloride concentration. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The slightly high concentration of sodium chloride increased the flexibility of loop L2, simultaneously expanded the global and local structure of NCS-1 protein. Increase in sodium chloride concentration induced loop L3 to adopt a collapsed state and reduced the connectivity between the starting and ending residues of loop L3. N-domain and C-domain interdomain correlation was weakened and the intradomain coupling strengthened. Formation number and the probability of the salt bridges were reduced dramatically, especially at 0.3 mol/L sodium chloride. These findings manifest that human NCS-1 protein is sensitive to the small variation of sodium chloride concentration, which may alter the key factors on protein conformation. Our study may provide the theoretical reference at the atomic structural insights for probing the conformational variations of human NCS-1 protein at the different aqueous solutions.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the protective effect of retarded removal of the unilateral necrotic testis after long-time (> 24 h) spermatic cord torsion on the contralateral testis in rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-three male SD rats aged 21 -42 days were divided into a sham-operation group (n = 11), a torsion-reservation group (n = 12) and a torsion-orchiectomy group (n = 10). The rats of the sham-operation group received dartos pouch orchidopexy on the left testis, while those of the latter two groups underwent 720 degrees unilateral spermatic cord torsion on the left side. Ninety-six hours later, the rats of the torsion-reservation group received detorsion with the ipsilateral testis preserved, while those of the torsion-orchiectomy group underwent orchiectomy. Three months after operation, blood samples were obtained from the rats for measurement of serum testosterone and antisperm antibodies by ELISA, and meanwhile testes and epididymides were harvested for determination of the volumes of various structures and the diameter of seminiferous tubules with stereological methods.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were no significant differences in the level of serum testosterone among the three groups. Anti-sperm antibody positive was found in only 1 animal in the torsion-reservation group. The Leydig cell nuclei in the contralateral testis appeared larger in the torsion groups than in the sham-operation group. Marked morphological changes were observed in 1, 3 and 0 of the animals in the sham-operation, torsion-reservation and torsion-orchiectomy group, respectively, mainly including atrophy of seminiferous tubules and reduced number of spermatogenic cells. The volume of the contralateral testis was increased by 19% and 21% in the torsion-reservation and torsion-orchiectomy group, respectively, in comparison with that in the sham-operation group (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed in the volume of seminiferous tubules of the contralateral testis among the sham-operation, torsion-reservation and torsion-orchiectomy groups ([1.15 +/- 0.07], [1.30 +/- 0.04] and [1.35 +/- 0.05] cm3). The volume of the interstitial tissue was significantly increased in the latter two groups ([0.36 +/- 0.02 and 0.34 +/- 0.03] cm3) as compared with the former ([0.25 +/- 0.02] cm3) (P < 0.05). The diameters of the seminiferous tubules exhibited no significant differences among the three groups ([226.00 +/- 7.00], [223.00 +/- 6.00] and [221.00 +/- 3.0] microm).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Long-time unilateral spermatic cord torsion may result in compensatory hypertrophy of the contralateral testis, and orchiectomy does not significantly affect the histology of the contralateral testis and epididymis.</p>