CL429 enhances the renewal of intestinal stem cells by upregulating TLR2-YAP1.

Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) play a crucial role in maintaining the equilibrium and regenerative potential of intestinal tissue, thereby ensuring tissue homeostasis and promoting effective tissue regeneration following injury. It has been proven that targeting Toll-like receptors (TLRs) can help prevent radiation-induced damage to the intestine. In this study, we established an intestinal injury model using IR and evaluated the effects of CL429 on ISC regeneration both in vivo and in vitro. Following radiation exposure, mice treated with CL429 showed a significant increase in survival rates (100% survival in the treated group compared to 54.54% in the control group). CL429 also showed remarkable efficacy in inhibiting radiation-induced intestinal damage and promoting ISC proliferation and regeneration. In addition, CL429 protected intestinal organoids against IR-induced injury. Mechanistically, RNA sequencing and Western blot analysis revealed the activation of the Wnt and Hippo signaling pathways by CL429. Specifically, we observed a significant upregulation of YAP1, a key transcription factor in the Hippo pathway, upon CL429 stimulation. Furthermore, knockdown of YAP1 significantly attenuated the radioprotective effect of CL429 on intestinal organoids, indicating that CL429-mediated intestinal radioprotection is dependent on YAP1. In addition, we investigated the relationship between TLR2 and YAP1 using TLR2 knockout mice, and our results showed that TLR2 knockout abolished the activation of CL429 on YAP1. Taken together, our study provides evidence supporting the role of CL429 in promoting ISC regeneration through activation of TLR2-YAP1. And further investigation of the interaction between TLRs and other signaling pathways may enhance our understanding of ISC regeneration after injury.

Zymosan-A promotes the regeneration of intestinal stem cells by upregulating ASCL2.

Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) are responsible for intestinal tissue homeostasis and are important for the regeneration of the damaged intestinal epithelia. Through the establishment of ionizing radiation (IR) induced intestinal injury model, we found that a TLR2 agonist, Zymosan-A, promoted the regeneration of ISCs in vivo and in vitro. Zymosan-A improved the survival of abdominal irradiated mice (81.82% of mice in the treated group vs. 30% of mice in the PBS group), inhibited the radiation damage of intestinal tissue, increased the survival rate of intestinal crypts and the number of ISCs after lethal IR in vivo. Through organoid experiments, we found that Zymosan-A promoted the proliferation and differentiation of ISCs after IR. Remarkably, the results of RNA sequencing and Western Blot (WB) showed that Zymosan-A reduced IR-induced intestinal injury via TLR2 signaling pathway and Wnt signaling pathway and Zymosan-A had no radioprotection on TLR2 KO mice, suggesting that Zymosan-A may play a radioprotective role by targeting TLR2. Moreover, our results revealed that Zymosan-A increased ASCL2, a transcription factor of ISCs, playing a core role in the process of Zymosan-A against IR-induced intestinal injury and likely contributing to the survival of intestinal organoids post-radiation. In conclusion, we demonstrated that Zymosan-A promotes the regeneration of ISCs by upregulating ASCL2.

An optimized cocktail of chitinolytic enzymes to produce N,N'-diacetylchitobiose and N-acetyl-d-glucosamine from defatted krill by-products.

Defatted krill powder (DKP), the byproduct of krill oil industry, is a resource of biological macromolecules. Here, one bacterial protease, three bacterial chitinases and one insect N-acetyl-d-hexosaminidase were integratively used to produce peptide, N,N'-diacetylchitobiose [(GlcNAc)2] and N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (GlcNAc) from DKP. First, alkaline protease was found to outperform neutral protease in deproteinizing DKP and the resultant krill peptides were rich in essential amino acids (41.4%). Second, the mutant of chitinase A from Serratia marcescens [SmChiA-F232W/F396W (SmChiA-M)] was found to be 32% faster than wild-type SmChiA in hydrolyzing the deproteinized DKP (DDKP) and showed significant synergy with chitinase B from S. marcescens (SmChiB) and chitinase C from S. marcescens (SmChiC). Then two SmChiA-M-based enzyme combinations [SmChiA-M + SmChiB + SmChiC and SmChiA-M + SmChiB + SmChiC + OfHex1 (an insect N-acetyl-d-hexosaminidase from Ostrinia furnacalis)] were designed to produce (GlcNAc)2 and GlcNAc, respectively, from DDKP. A yield of 2.04 g/L (GlcNAc)2 or 2.71 g/L GlcNAc (each with 95% purity) could be obtained from 20 g/L DDKP in 24 h.

Isolation and characterization of angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitory peptides derived from porcine hemoglobin.

Animal blood is potentially an untapped source of drugs and value-added food production. More than 400 million pigs are slaughtered each year but porcine blood is usually discarded in China. This study describes the isolation and characterization of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides derived from porcine hemoglobin. The most active hydrolysate was obtained from the peptic digestion of porcine hemoglobin. After the purification of ACE-inhibitory peptides with Sephadex LH-20 gel chromatography and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) on C(18) column, two active fractions were obtained. They were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). They were LGFPTTKTYFPHF and VVYPWT, corresponding to the 34-46 fragment of the alpha chain and the 34-39 fragment of the beta chain of porcine hemoglobin, with IC(50) values of 4.92 and 6.02 microM, respectively. They were the first found from porcine hemoglobin; in particular, LGFPTTKTYFPHF was a novel ACE-inhibitory peptide. In addition, the purified ACE inhibitors both competitively inhibited ACE, and maintained inhibitory activity even after incubation with gastrointestinal proteases. This suggests that these peptides might have a potential antihypertensive effect.