Therapeutic efficacy of dapagliflozin on diabetic kidney disease in rats.

AIM: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the severe microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which eventually leads to irreversible renal damage and develops into end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a new class of antidiabetic drugs that act on the kidney to reduce glucose reabsorption. Increasing evidence confirms that dapagliflozin exerts a protective effect on DKD, but the mechanisms have not been reported. The aims of this study were to observe the therapeutic efficacy of dapagliflozin on DKD and investigate the possible immunological mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: T2DM was modeled by a high-sugar and high-fat diet combined with STZ. Then, rats were treated with 10 mg/kg dapagliflozin for 8 weeks. The protective efficacy of dapagliflozin was evaluated by observing body weight, blood glucose, blood serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, 24-h urine protein, renal histology and ultrastructure, and oxidative stress levels. The immunological mechanisms were monitored by measuring the levels of TLR2/Myd88/NF-κB by immunohistochemical staining, RT-qPCR and Western blotting. RESULTS: After treatment with dapagliflozin, renal damage was greatly improved. The levels of blood glucose, renal function and proteinuria were significantly decreased, and renal pathological and ultrastructural damage was obviously extenuated, possibly due to the reduction in inflammation and the levels of oxidative stress. CONCLUSIONS: Dapagliflozin has therapeutic potential for DKD. This effect was possibly mediated by inhibiting inflammation and oxidative stress levels.

Long Noncoding RNA H19 Derived from M2 Tumor-Associated Macrophages Promotes Bladder Cell Autophagy via Stabilizing ULK1.

Purpose: M2-like tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are crucial component of immune infiltration in tumor microenvironment (TME), and exosomes derived from TAMs contributed to the regulation of tumor progression through cellular communication. However, in bladder cancer, the role of exosomal components still remains largely unknown. In the current study, we investigated the role of exosomes derived from M2-like TAMs in the regulation of autophagy in bladder cancer (BC) cells. Methods: THP-1 cells were stimulated with IL-4 and IL-13 for the polarization of TAMs, and exosomes were extracted by ultracentrifugation. H19 overexpression plasmid and H19 siRNAs were used in the study. Fluorescent analysis was performed for GFP-LC3 detection. Levels of autophagy and potential target were confirmed by western blot assay and immunoprecipitation. Results: We found that TAMs-exosome treatment significantly enhanced autophagy in BC cells, and the expression of lncRNA H19 was greatly upregulated in TAMs-exosome. Silencing of lncRNA H19 in TAMs-exo obviously decreased the levels of LC3-II expression whereas the p62 levels were increased. Mechanistically, silencing of exosomal H19 from TAMs alleviated ULK1 stabilization in BC cells through promoting K48-linked polyubiquitination of ULK1. At last, we found that overexpression of exosomal H19 from TAMs suppressed the interaction between ULK1 and its specific E3 ligase NEDD4L in BC cells. Conclusion: We revealed the effect of TAMs-exo-contained lncRNA H19 on regulating autophagy of bladder cancer cells, which indicated that targeting TAMs-H19 is a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of BC.

Therapeutic Effect of Schistosoma japonicum Cystatin on Atherosclerotic Renal Damage.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammation of the arterial vessel wall driven by lipid metabolism disorders. Although helminthic infection and their derivatives have been identified to attenuate the chronic inflammatory diseases, the immunomodulatory effect of recombinant Schistosoma japonicum cystatin (rSj-Cys) on metabolic diseases and atherosclerosis has not been reported. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic efficacy of rSj-Cys on atherosclerotic renal damage and explored the related immunological mechanism. The results demonstrated that treatment with rSj-Cys significantly reduced body weight gain, hyperlipidemia, and atherosclerosis induced by the high-fat diet in apoE-/- mice. The treatment of rSj-Cys also significantly improved kidney functions through promoting macrophage polarization from M1 to M2, therefore inhibiting M1 macrophage-induced inflammation. The possible mechanism underlying the regulatory effect of rSj-Cys on reducing atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic renal damage is that rSj-Cys stimulates regulatory T cell and M2 macrophage polarization that produce regulatory cytokines, such as interleukin 10 and transforming growth factor ß. The therapeutic effect of rSj-Cys on atherosclerotic renal damage is possibly through inhibiting the activation of TLR2/Myd88 signaling pathway. The results in this study provide evidence for the first time that Schistosoma-derived cystatin could be developed as a therapeutic agent to treat lipid metabolism disorder and atherosclerosis that threats million lives around the world.