An immunoregulatory peptide from salivary glands of the horsefly, Hybomitra atriperoides

Horseflies are economically important blood-feeding arthropods and also a nuisance for humans, and vectors for filariasis. They rely heavily on the pharmacological propriety of their saliva to get blood meat and suppress immune reactions of hosts. Little information is available on horsefly immune suppressants. By high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purification coupling with pharmacological testing, an immunoregulatory peptide named immunoregulin HA has been identified and characterized from salivary glands of the horsefly of Hybomitra atriperoides (Diptera, Tabanidae). Immunoregulin HA could inhibit the secretion of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1) and increase the secretion of interteukin-10 (IL-10) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LIPS) in rat splenocytes. IL-10 is a suppressor cytokine of T-cell proliferative and cytokine responses. IL-10 can inhibit the elaboration of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Immunoregulin HA possibly unregulated the IL-10 production to inhibit IFN-gamma and MCP-1 secretion in the current experiments. This immunosuppression may facilitate the blood feeding of this horsefly. The current works will facilitate to understand the molecular mechanisms of the ectoparasite-host relationship. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Apoptosis induction on human hepatoma cells Hep G2 of decabrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE-209)

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are an important class of halogenated organic brominated flame retardants. Because of their presence in abiotic and biotic environments widely and their structural similarity to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), concern has been raised on their possible adverse health effects to humans. This study was designed to determine the anti-proliferative, apoptotic properties of decabrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE-209), using a human hepatoma Hep G2 line as a model system. Hep G2 cells were cultured in the presence of PBDE-209 at various concentrations (1.0-100.0 mu mol/L) for 72 h and the percentage of cell viability was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The results showed that PBDE-209 inhibited the cells viability in time and concentration-dependent characteristics at concentrations (10.0-100.0 mu mol/L). We found that anti-proliferative effect of PBDE-209 was associated with apoptosis on Hep G2 cells by determinations of morphological changes, cell cycle and apoptosis. Mechanism study showed that PBDE-209 could increase the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentration-dependently. Antioxidant N-acetylcyteine partially inhibited the increase of ROS. The mechanism for its hepatoma-inhibitory effects was the induction of cellular apoptosis through ROS generation. In addition, activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release increased when the cells incubated with PBDE-209 at various concentrations and times. These results suggested that PBDE-209 had the toxicity activity of anti-proliferation and induction of apoptosis in tumor cells in vitro. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Egonol龙胆三糖苷及Egonol衍生物促雌二醇生成活性研究

对Egonol龙胆三糖苷及以Egonol衍生物对雌二醇生成活性及其相关机制进行了研究。发现Egonol龙胆三糖苷促雌二醇最高生成率在MCF-7、HepG2、ROS1728中分别为157% 、182.4%、226.8%（以空白组200μg/ml睾酮转换成E2值作为100%生成率）。活性的强弱可能与芳香化酶的组织特异性表达情况一致，说明Egonol龙胆三糖苷促雌二醇活性可能与芳香化酶有关。芳香化酶的组织特异性表达与特异性启动子有关系，Egonol龙胆三糖苷在各组织中皆有促雌二醇活性，说明该化合物不是通过调节该酶的基因表达而起作用。 在探究Egonol龙胆三糖苷及其衍生物是否介导cAMP-PKA途径从而影响芳香化酶的表达中，发现该系列化合物在HEK-293T细胞中对cAMP的影响非常弱小。在人HepG2细胞中显示了极强的提高cAMP的作用。而化合物对cAMP的作用与其促雌二醇活性强弱不呈正相关关系，对c AMP-PKA途径的激活可能与胞内雌激素有关。 Egonol龙胆三糖苷及其衍生物对HepG2细胞增殖影响显示，该系列化合物同雌二醇一样有相似的较弱促HepG2细胞增殖作用。而且存在一定剂量依赖性。在瞬时转染有ERE（雌激素作用元件）的HepG2中，Egonol龙胆三糖苷及其衍生物也显示了类似于雌二醇与ERE结合的作用，进一步提示Egonol龙胆三糖苷及其衍生物在HepG2细胞中具备雌激素样作用。 为研究Egonol龙胆三糖苷及其衍生物是否可能直接提高芳香化酶的活性，我们计划将芳香化酶从芳香化酶阳性细胞中克隆后表达到芳香化酶阴性的细胞中。在MCF-7细胞中以Oligo dT为引物合成的cDNA模板，和在ROS1728细胞中以Oligo dT及大鼠引物F链为引物合成的cDNA模板能成功扩增出与芳香化酶全长编码序列大小一致的片段。 Egonol衍生物在HepG2、ROS1728细胞中促雌二醇活性的实验表明，Egonol苯环上引入其它基团可以提高Egonol的活性。 从雌激素经典的基因组效应和非基因组效应两方面对雌激素信号转导研究进展进行了简单的综述。 The promoting effects of egonol gentiotrioside and egonol derivatives on the synthesis of estrogen E2 were studied. In vitro test, egonol gentiotrioside promoted the synthesis of estrogen E2 in MCF-7, HepG2,ROS1728 cell lines with mean yields of estrogen E2 57%,82.4% and 126.8%, higher than those of blank control at a concentration of 100 mg/ml. The difference of estrogen E2 synthesis promoting effects among the cell lines suggested tissue specificity. It is in accordance with tissue specific character of aromatase expression. The evidence implied that effect of egonol gentiotrioside on promoting the synthesis of estrogen E2 was related to the aromatase. Different expression levels of aromatase in different tissues are attributed to their specific promoters, but egonol gentiotrioside can promote the synthesis of estrogen E2, in many tissues,so the fact is controversary to the estimation that this compound regulates the aromatase on gene level. In order to investigate whether egonol gentiotrioside and its synthetic derivatives regulates aromatase activity through the cAMP-PKA signal pathway,we transfected the p CRE-Luc luciferase reporter gene into the HEK-293T cells and HepG2 cells. These compounds had weak activity in promoting the cAMP activity in HEK-293T cells but strong in HepG2 cells.The compounds’effect of promoting the cAMP may be related to their estrogenic activity in cells. The modified HepG2 cell proliferation assay was used to evaluate the estrogenic activity of egonol gentiotrioside and its derivatives. The weak estrogenic activity of egonol gentiotrioside and its derivatives at various concentrations expressed as proliferative effect relative to that of blank control was examined. We transfected the pERE-Luc luciferase reporter gene into the HepG2 cells. These compounds possessed significant activity on estrogen response element compared with the one treated with 10 n M estrogen E2. This evidence indicated that the estrogenic activity of egonol gentiotrioside and its derivatives. In order to investigate whether the egonol gentiotrioside and its derivatives can upregulate the activity of aromatase directly, The full-length of P450 aromatase cDNA encoding aromatase were amplified by using primer Oligo dT in MCF-7,and specific primer in ROS1728,respectively. The structure-activity relationship of Egonol in promoting the synthesis of E2 in HepG2 and ROS1728 cells indicated that introduction of some group on the basic sketon of egonol could improve the effect. The progress in research of signal pathway of estrogen in recent years was summarized.