ABSTRACT
Atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease, is the most relevant cause of carotid artery stenosis. Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) play a significant role in the development of atherosclerosis. In this chronic inflammatory environment, we aimed to investigate whether PCSK9 could mitigate atherosclerosis progression by reducing tissue factor expression in ECs via in vivo and in vitro assays. In vivo, we investigated the effect of PCSK9 inhibition on preventing atherosclerotic lesion formation in ApoE-/- mice fed a western diet. The results showed that inhibiting PCSK9 could significantly downregulate the protein expression of tissue factor (TF) in ECs to reduce the area of atherosclerotic plaques. In vitro, we incubated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We found that LPS-induced TF elevation was suppressed by a PCSK9 inhibitor at both the mRNA and protein levels and that the TLR4/NF-κB pathway was also suppressed by a PCSK9 inhibitor. With respect to plasma samples from patients with carotid artery stenosis, we also demonstrated that the expression of TF was positively correlated with that of PCSK9. Thus, in addition to regulating lipid metabolism, the regulation of endothelial cell TF expression through the TLR4/NF-κB pathway may be a potential mechanism of PCSK9 in promoting atherosclerotic carotid stenosis.
Subject(s)
Apolipoproteins E , Carotid Stenosis , Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells , Mice, Inbred C57BL , NF-kappa B , Proprotein Convertase 9 , Signal Transduction , Thromboplastin , Toll-Like Receptor 4 , Animals , Toll-Like Receptor 4/metabolism , Toll-Like Receptor 4/genetics , Mice , NF-kappa B/metabolism , Proprotein Convertase 9/genetics , Proprotein Convertase 9/metabolism , Humans , Carotid Stenosis/metabolism , Male , Apolipoproteins E/genetics , Apolipoproteins E/metabolism , Apolipoproteins E/deficiency , Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells/metabolism , Thromboplastin/metabolism , Thromboplastin/genetics , Thromboplastin/biosynthesis , Signal Transduction/physiology , Mice, Knockout, ApoE , Endothelial Cells/metabolism , Endothelial Cells/drug effects , Mice, Knockout , PCSK9 Inhibitors , FemaleABSTRACT
To improve the proinsecticidal activity and phloem mobility of amino acid-tralopyril conjugates further, nine conjugates were designed and synthesized by introducing glutamic acid to tralopyril, and the length of the linker between glutamic acid and tralopyril ranged from 2 atoms to 10 atoms. The results of insecticidal activity against the third-instar larvae of P. xylostella showed that conjugates 42, 43, 44,and 45 (straight-chain containing 2-5 atoms) exhibited good insecticidal activity, and their LC50 values were 0.2397 ± 0.0366, 0.4413 ± 0.0647, 0.4400 ± 0.0624, and 0.4602 ± 0.0655 mM, respectively. The concentrations of conjugates 43-45 were higher than that of conjugate 42 in the phloem sap at 2 h, and conjugate 43 showed the highest concentration. The introduction of glutamic acid can improve phloem mobility. The in vivo metabolism of conjugates 42 and 43 was investigated in P. xylostella, and the parent compound tralopyril was detected at concentrations of 0.5950 and 0.3172 nmol/kg, respectively. According to the above results, conjugates 42 and 43 were potential phloem mobile pro-insecticide candidates.
