ABSTRACT
Upregulation of B-cell CLL/lymphoma (BCL)2 expression following lithium treatment is seemingly well established and has been related to the neuroprotective property of the drug. However, while demonstrated by some (but not all) studies based on low-throughput techniques (e.g. qPCR) this effect is not reflected in high-throughput studies, such as microarrays and RNAseq. This manuscript presents a systematic review of currently available reports of lithium's effect on BCL2 expression. To our surprise, we found that the majority of the literature does not support the effect of lithium on BCL2 transcript or protein levels. Moreover, among the positive reports, several used therapeutically irrelevant lithium doses while others lack statistical power. We also noticed that numerous low-throughput studies normalized the signal using genes/proteins affected by lithium, imposing possible bias. Using wet bench experiments and reanalysis of publicly available microarray data, here we show that the reference gene chosen for normalization critically impacts the outcome of qPCR analyses of lithium's effect on BCL2 expression. Our findings suggest that experimental results might be severely affected by the choice of normalizing genes, and emphasize the need to re-evaluate stability of these genes in the context of the specific experimental conditions.
Subject(s)
Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects , Lithium Compounds/pharmacology , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2/genetics , Actins/genetics , Animals , Cell Line , Chickens , Datasets as Topic , Hippocampus/metabolism , Humans , Mice , Myristoylated Alanine-Rich C Kinase Substrate/genetics , Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis , Rats , Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction , Repressor Proteins/geneticsABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the effects of a dry aqueous extract of Notobasis syriaca (N. syriaca) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in rats. Methods: Rats were fed the dried extract [500 mg/(kg•d)] for three consecutive days and then were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (1 mg/kg). Two hours after LPS injection, rats were sacrificed and blood and brain regions were collected. Inflammatory mediators' levels in plasma and homogenates of brain regions were determined by ELISA. Results: Pretreatment with the N. syriaca extract resulted in significant anti-inflammatory effects (P<0.05), including: i) attenuated LPS-induced hypothermia; ii) decreased hypothalamus and hippocampus prostaglandin E2 levels in the LPStreated rats; and, iii) reduced hypothalamus and hippocampus interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-levels in the LPS-treated rats. Conclusions: These results suggest that N. syriaca possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Thus, it is possible that long-term consumption of this plant may result in beneficial pharmacological effects.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the effects of a dry aqueous extract of Notobasis syriaca (N. syriaca) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in rats.Methods:Rats were fed the dried extract [500 mg/(kgod)] for three consecutive days and then were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (1 mg/kg). Two hours after LPS injection, rats were sacrificed and blood and brain regions were collected. Inflammatory mediators’ levels in plasma and homogenates of brain regions were determined by ELISA.Results:Pretreatment with the N. syriaca extract resulted in significant anti-inflammatory effects (P<0.05), including: i) attenuated LPS-induced hypothermia; ii) decreased hypothalamus and hippocampus prostaglandin EConclusions:These results suggest that N. syriaca possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Thus, it is possible that long-term consumption of this plant may result in beneficial pharmacological effects.
ABSTRACT
We have recently shown that valproate (VPA) decreases intracellular concentrations of inositol, like lithium but via a different mechanism, namely by inhibiting myo-inositol-1-phosphate (MIP) synthase. Valnoctamide (VCD) and valrocemide (VGD) are VPA derivatives which are anticonvulsants and have been shown in animal models to be significantly less teratogenic than VPA. We now show that 1 mM of either VCD or VGD drastically inhibits human brain crude homogenate MIP synthase activity. We studied the mechanism of the effect of VCD and found that it reduced the enzyme activity by an apparent competitive mode of inhibition at concentrations within the therapeutic range of VPA(Ki = 0.18 mM). We studied the behavioral effect of VGD and found that both lithium and VGD attenuated amphetamine-induced increase in rearing. These data support clinical study of these VPA-derivatives in bipolar disorder.
