The relationship between phosphodiesterase 4D gene polymorphism and coronary heart disease.

Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease is one of the most common heart diseases that seriously endanger human health. The study found that intracellular second messenger CAMP plays an important role in inhibiting the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle and the local inflammatory response at the damaged vessel. Phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) can specifically degrade cAMP. The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between phosphodiesterase 4D gene polymorphism and coronary heart disease and the effect of phosphodiesterase 4D gene polymorphism on cardiovascular, using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method (PCR-RFLP) was used to detect 50 patients with coronary heart disease (ACS group) and 100 patients who were diagnosed with coronary artery disease by coronary angiography at the same time as the control group (NC group). The results of the study showed that the frequencies of AA, AG, and GG genotypes in 150 samples were 25.67%, 54.66%, and 22.67%, respectively, which was consistent with Hard Weber's law (X = 2.186, P = 0.101). The distribution of GG genotype (18% vs. 27%), AA + AG genotype (85% vs. 74%), G (57% vs. 55%), A (43% vs. 45 %) There was no statistically significant difference in allele frequency (P <0.05). From this, it can be seen that the rs918592 polymorphism of the PDE4D gene is not associated with coronary heart disease.

Bauerane Induces S-Phase Cell Cycle Arrest, Apoptosis, and Inhibition of Proliferation of A549 Human Lung Cancer Cells Through the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase (PI3K)/AKT and Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) Signaling Pathway.

BACKGROUND Bauerane is a triterpenoid derived from the dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale). This study aimed to investigate the effects of bauerane on cell proliferation of A549 human lung cancer cells and the molecular mechanisms involved. MATERIAL AND METHODS A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells and normal MRC-5 lung fibroblasts were grown in culture and treated with increasing doses of bauerane at 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, and 160 µM. The MTT assay was used to measure cell proliferation. Cell apoptosis was assessed by 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), and acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) staining. The cell cycle was evaluated by flow cytometry. Western blot measured the protein expression levels of cytochrome c, Bax, cyclin B1, Bcl-2, PI3K, p-PI3K, Akt, p-Akt, and STAT3 proteins. RESULTS Bauerane inhibited the proliferation of A549 lung cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, with an IC50 of 10 µM, with no cytotoxicity for MRC-5 cells. Bauerane treatment induced apoptosis of A549 cells, which was associated with the upregulation of Bax and down-regulation of Bcl-2. Bauerane induced S-phase arrest of A549 cells, which was dose-dependent and associated with reduced expression of cyclin B1. The findings from Western blot showed that bauerane inhibited the phosphorylation of PI3K/AKT and STAT3 signaling pathways. CONCLUSIONS Bauerane inhibited the proliferation of A549 lung cancer cells in vitro and induced cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in a dose-dependent manner.

WPMIAS: Whole-degradome-based Plant MicroRNA-Target Interaction Analysis Server.

A critical aspect for exploring the biological function of a microRNA (miRNA) lies on exact detection and validation of its target mRNAs. However, no convenient and efficient web-based server is available for plant biologists to identify the experimentally verified target mRNAs of miRNAs. In this work, we built a comprehensive web-based platform for miRNA-target analysis, named as Whole-degradome-based Plant MiRNA-target Interaction Analysis Server (WPMIAS), for validation of predicted interactions of miRNAs and their target mRNAs (MTIs) by user-submitted data or all available pre-loaded degradome data. Besides, the server can construct degradome-based miRNA regulatory networks (MRNs) based on the validated MTIs to help study the functions and relations among miRNAs and target mRNAs. WPMIAS is also suitable for other small RNAs (sRNAs), such as 21-nt phased siRNAs (phasiRNAs) and natural antisense siRNAs (nat-siRNAs), which direct cleavage of target mRNAs. Currently, WPMIAS supports 64 plant species with ∼200 cDNA libraries and 274 pre-loaded plant degradome datasets. The user can identify all validated MTIs by analyzing all degradome data at a time and understand when and where MTIs take place and their cleavage levels. With the data obtained from WPMIAS, the user can build a plant miRNA-target map, where it is convenient to find interesting research ideas on miRNAs. In summary, WPMIAS is able to support a comprehensive web-based plant miRNA-target analysis and expected to greatly promote future research on plant miRNAs. AVAILABILITY: It can be freely accessed at https://cbi.njau.edu.cn/WPMIAS/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Stromal cell-derived factor 1alpha reduces senescence of endothelial progenitor subpopulation in lectin-binding and DiLDL-uptaking cell through telomerase activation and telomere elongation.

Recent studies have suggested that reduced endothelial progenitor subpopulation in lectin-binding and DiLDL-uptaking cell (EPC subpopulation) number and activity was associated with EPC subpopulation senescence that involved telomerase activity and telomere length. Stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha) has been shown to augment a variety of cellular functions of EPC subpopulation and subsequently contribute to ischemic neovascularization. Therefore, we investigated whether SDF-1alpha might be able to prevent senescence of EPC subpopulation and also investigated the effects of SDF-1alpha on the telomerase activity and telomere length. EPC subpopulation were isolated from peripheral blood and characterized. After ex vivo prolonged cultivation, EPC subpopulation became senescent as determined by acidic beta-galactosidase staining. SDF-1alpha dose-dependently inhibited the onset of EPC subpopulation senescence. Moreover, SDF-1alpha increased proliferation and colony-forming activity of EPC subpopulation. SDF-1alpha also increased telomerase activity and telomere length, which was accompanied with upregulation of the catalytic subunit, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). Whereas these effects of SDF-1alpha on telomerase activity and expression of hTERT mRNA were significantly attenuated by CXCR4-specific peptide antagonist (AMD3100) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor (LY294002). In conclusions, SDF-1alpha delays the onset of EPC subpopulation senescence, which may be related to the activation of telomerase and elongation of telomere length. The inhibition of EPC subpopulation senescence and induction of EPC subpopulation proliferation by SDF-1alpha in vitro may importantly improve the functional activity of EPC subpopulation for potential cell therapy.