Oligomeric forms of amyloid-ß protein in plasma as a potential blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Soluble amyloid-ß (Aß) oligomers are the major toxic substances associated with the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The ability to measure Aß oligomer levels in the blood would provide simple and minimally invasive tools for AD diagnostics. In the present study, the recently developed Multimer Detection System (MDS) for AD, a new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for measuring Aß oligomers selectively, was used to detect Aß oligomers in the plasma of patients with AD and healthy control individuals. METHODS: Twenty-four patients with AD and 37 cognitively normal control individuals underwent extensive clinical evaluations as follows: blood sampling; detailed neuropsychological tests; brain magnetic resonance imaging; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measurement of Aß42, phosphorylated tau protein (pTau), and total tau protein (tTau); and 11C-Pittsburgh compound B (PIB) positron emission tomography. Pearson's correlation analyses between the estimations of Aß oligomer levels by MDS and other conventional AD biomarkers (CSF Aß42, pTau, and tTau, as well as PIB standardized uptake value ratio [PIB SUVR]) were conducted. ROC analyses were used to compare the diagnostic performance of each biomarker. RESULTS: The plasma levels of Aß oligomers by MDS were higher in patients with AD than in normal control individuals, and they correlated well with conventional AD biomarkers (levels of Aß oligomers by MDS vs. CSF Aß42, r = -0.443; PIB SUVR, r = 0.430; CSF pTau, r = 0.530; CSF tTau, r = 0.604). The sensitivity and specificity of detecting plasma Aß oligomers by MDS for differentiating AD from the normal controls were 78.3% and 86.5%, respectively. The AUC for plasma Aß oligomers by MDS was 0.844, which was not significantly different from the AUC of other biomarkers (p = 0.250). CONCLUSIONS: Plasma levels of Aß oligomers could be assessed using MDS, which might be a simple, noninvasive, and accessible assay for evaluating brain amyloid deposition related to AD pathology.

Dynamic changes of oligomeric amyloid ß levels in plasma induced by spiked synthetic Aß42.

BACKGROUND: A reliable blood-based assay is required to properly diagnose and monitor Alzheimer's disease (AD). Many attempts have been made to develop such a diagnostic tool by measuring amyloid-ß oligomers (AßOs) in the blood, but none have been successful in terms of method reliability. We present a multimer detection system (MDS), initially developed for the detection of prion oligomers in the blood, to detect AßOs. METHODS: To characterize Aß in the blood, plasma was spiked with synthetic amyloid-ß (Aß) and incubated over time. Then, the MDS was used to monitor the dynamic changes of AßO levels in the plasma. RESULTS: Increasing concentrations of AßOs were observed in the plasma of patients with AD but not in the plasma of normal control subjects. The plasma from patients with AD (n = 27) was differentiated from that of the age-matched normal control subjects (n = 144) with a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 90.0%. CONCLUSIONS: Synthetic Aß spiked into the blood plasma of patients with AD, but that of not elderly normal control subjects, induced dynamic changes in the formation of AßOs over time. AßOs were detected by the MDS, which is a useful blood-based assay with high sensitivity and specificity for AD diagnosis.

Sub-toxic dose of apigenin sensitizes HepG2 cells to TRAIL through ERK-dependent up-regulation of TRAIL receptor DR5.

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is regarded as a promising candidate for anticancer therapy due to its selective toxicity to cancer cells. Nevertheless, because of TRAIL resistance in some cancer cells, combined treatment with sensitizing agents is required to enhance the anticancer potential of TRAIL. In this study, we investigated the underlying mechanism of apigenin-induced sensitization of HepG2 cells to TRAIL-induced cell death. Synergistic induction of apoptosis by combination was confirmed by examining the typical morphology changes of apoptosis, PARP-cleavage, and activation of effector caspases. Z-VAD-fmk, a pan-caspase inhibitor, inhibited the enhanced cell death by combined treatment of apigenin and TRAIL, demonstrating that a caspase-dependent pathway is involved in apigenin/TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. In addition, we found that apigenin/ TRAIL co-treatment up-regulates DR5 cell surface expression. The synergistic induction of cell death by the apigenin/ TRAIL combination was significantly attenuated by DR5 blocking chimera antibody. Next, using pharmacological inhibitors, we found that ERK activation is involved in the induction of DR5 expression. Inhibition of ERK1/2 by U0126 significantly decreased the apigenin/TRAIL-induced DR5 expression and apoptosis. Taken together, our results indicate that apigenin can enhance the apoptotic effect of TRAIL via ERK-induced up-regulation of DR5.

Platycodin D induces reactive oxygen species-mediated apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 activation and endoplasmic reticulum stress response in human breast cancer cells.

Platycodin D (PD), a natural compound found in Platycodon grandiflorum, induces apoptotic cell death in various carcinoma cells. One mechanism of PD-mediated cell death is by activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases, as suggested in a recent report. In this study, we further examined upstream signal pathways and the relationship between these signals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Using immunoblotting assays, we found that PD activated apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) through phosphorylation of ASK1 at threonine and dephosphorylation of ASK1 at serine. We also showed that PD caused activation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. This was supported by observations showing that treatment with PD induces phosphorylation of PKR-like ER kinase (PERK) and eukaryotic initiation factor 2 α (eIF 2α), up-regulating expression of glucose-regulated protein 78/immunoglobulin heavy chain binding protein (GRP78/Bip) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein/growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible gene 153 (CHOP/GADD153) and activation of caspase-4. Furthermore, PD-induced ASK1 and ER stress responses were inhibited by the antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine. These results suggest that ROS play a critical role for activation of ASK1 and ER stress in PD-treated cancer cells.

Wogonin induces apoptosis by activation of ERK and p38 MAPKs signaling pathways and generation of reactive oxygen species in human breast cancer cells.

Wogonin is a one of the bioactive compounds of Scutellaria baicalensi Georgi which has been shown to have antiinflammatory, anticancer, antiviral and neuroprotective effects. However, the underlying mechanisms by which wogonin induces apoptosis in cancer cells still remain speculative. Here we investigated the potential activation of MAPKs and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by wogonin on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. These results showed that wogonin induced mitochondria and death-receptor-mediated apoptotic cell death, which was characterized by activation of several caspases, induction of PARP cleavage, change of antiapoptotic/proapoptotic Bcl-2 family member ratios and cleavage of Bid. We also found that generation of ROS was an important mediator in wogonin-induced apoptosis. Further investigation revealed that wogonin activated ERK and p38 MAPKs, which was inhibited by N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), a ROS scavenger, indicating that wogonin-induced ROS are associated with MAPKs activation. These data demonstrate that wogonin may be a novel anticancer agent for treatment of breast cancer.

Effect of combination of taurine and azelaic acid on antimelanogenesis in murine melanoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Pigmentation in human skin is an important defense mechanism against sunlight or oxidative stress. Despite the protective role of melanin, abnormal hyperpigmentation such as freckles and chloasma sometimes can be serious aesthetic problems. Because of these effects of hyperpigmentation, people have considered the effect of depigmentation. Azelaic acid (AZ) is a saturated dicarboxylic acid found naturally in wheat, rye, and barley. Previously, we showed that AZ inhibited melanogenesis. In this study, we investigated the antimelanogenic activity of combination of AZ and taurine (Tau) in B16F10 mouse melanoma cells. METHODS: The mouse melanoma cell line B16F10 was used in the study. We measured melanin contents and tyrosinase activity. To gain the change of protein expression, we carried out western blotting. RESULTS: We investigated that AZ combined with taurine (Tau) show more inhibitory effects in melanocytes than the treatment of AZ alone. AZ combined with Tau inhibited the melanin production and tyrosinase activity of B16F10 melanoma cells without significant cytotoxicity. Also inhibitory effects after treatment with these combined chemical are stronger than AZ alone on melanogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that AZ with Tau might play an important role in the regulation of melanin formation and be useful as effective ingredients in antimelanogesis.

Platycodin D induces apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.

Platycodin D (PD), a major constituent isolated from the root of Platycodon grandiflorum, has been suggested to possess anticancer activities, as indicated by its capabilities to induce mitotic arrest and apoptosis in several cancer cells. However, little is known of the underlying action mechanism. This study is the first to investigate the anticancer effect of PD in the human breast cancer cell, MCF-7. Our data showed that PD exhibited marked cell growth inhibition by inducing apoptosis. This induction was associated with activation of caspase-8 and -9 activities and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. PD triggered the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, as indicated by up-regulation of levels of cellular Bax and down-regulation of levels of Bcl-2 and caspase-9 activation. We found that PD induced proteolytic activation of Bid, a member of the proapoptotic Bcl-2 family, implicating PD-induced apoptosis as possibly being functionally linked to a death receptor-mediated pathway. The PD treatment also was accompanied by an increase in cellular generation of reactive oxygen species, indicating that PD-induced apoptosis is likely to be mediated through mitochondrial dysfunction. In addition, we revealed that the mitogen-activated protein kinases, including extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase 1/2, and p38, which play important roles in apoptosis, were activated by treatment with PD. These results provide a basic mechanism for the anticancer properties of PD and suggest that PD is a promising candidate for chemotherapy and chemoprevention of breast cancer.