SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to show a capacity for invading the brains of humans and model animals. However, it remains unclear whether and how SARS-CoV-2 crosses the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Herein, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was occasionally detected in the vascular wall and perivascular space, as well as in brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) in the infected K18-hACE2 transgenic mice. Moreover, the permeability of the infected vessel was increased. Furthermore, disintegrity of BBB was discovered in the infected hamsters by administration of Evans blue. Interestingly, the expression of claudin5, ZO-1, occludin and the ultrastructure of tight junctions (TJs) showed unchanged, whereas, the basement membrane was disrupted in the infected animals. Using an in vitro BBB model that comprises primary BMECs with astrocytes, SARS-CoV-2 was found to infect and cross through the BMECs. Consistent with in vivo experiments, the expression of MMP9 was increased and collagen IV was decreased while the markers for TJs were not altered in the SARS-CoV-2-infected BMECs. Besides, inflammatory responses including vasculitis, glial activation, and upregulated inflammatory factors occurred after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Overall, our results provide evidence supporting that SARS-CoV-2 can cross the BBB in a transcellular pathway accompanied with basement membrane disrupted without obvious alteration of TJs.

Woodchuck Hepatitis Virus Post-transcriptional Regulatory Element (WPRE) is thought to enhance transgene expression of target genes delivered by adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors. This study assessed the protein expression of α-synuclein, phosphorylated α-synuclein at Serine 129, extent of nigrostriatal degeneration as well as subsequent behavioral deficits induced by unilateral intranigral stereotactic injection in male adult C57BL/6J mice of an AAV2/9 expressing A53T human α-synuclein under the control of the synapsin promoter in presence or absence of the WPRE. The presence of WPRE enabled to achieve greater nigrostriatal degeneration and synucleinopathy which was concomitant with worsened forelimb use asymmetry. This work refines a mouse Parkinson's disease model in which anatomo-pathology is related to behavioral deficits.

目的 观察太子参多糖(总多糖)、葛根淫羊藿总黄酮(总黄酮)及其复合物对小鼠脑蛋白质组学的影响,探讨其神经细胞网络调控的潜在机理.方法 给正常小鼠分别灌胃太子参多糖(400 mg·kg-1)、葛根淫羊藿总黄酮(400 mg·kg-1)及其二者复合物(800 mg·kg-1),连续给药7天,第7天最后1次给药后1 h,处死动物,取脑.提取蛋白,利用LC/MS-MS测试蛋白表达的变化.通过DAVID数据库分析变化蛋白的功能及信号通路,STRING数据库分析变化蛋白的相互作用及其网络关系.结果 在所测试的5567个蛋白中,以上调蛋白占比较高,其中主要是线粒体的基因受到调控.总多糖、总黄酮及其复合物都上调的蛋白有8个,作用于线粒体的不同环节,提示该复合物抗抑郁作用的靶点主要在线粒体.太子参多糖的调控线粒体相关蛋白的作用揭示了其潜在的神经精神方面的药理作用.除此,还发现各有效部位调控蛋白的数量明显多于复合物,提示药物复合作用的复杂性.结论 总多糖、总黄酮及其复合物可以作用于脑神经元,并且主要以线粒体为主要靶点.该研究为相关中药调控神经精神功能活动提供了重要的蛋白线索及其实验依据.

The SARS-CoV-2 has led to a worldwide health crisis. The ACE2 has been identified as the entry receptor in a species-specific manner. Classic laboratory mice were insusceptible since the virus cannot use murine ACE2 orthologue. Animal models rely on gene modification on the virus or the host. However, these mice were restricted in limited genetic backgrounds and did not support natural infection. Here we showed two wild-type inbred lines (CAST and FEW) from Genetic Diversity mice supported authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection, and developed mild to moderate interstitial pneumonia, along with infiltrating inflammatory cells. Particularly, FEW featured age-dependent damages, while CAST charactered by pulmonary fibrosis. Genome and transcriptome comparative analysis suggested the mutated ACE2 was not responsible for SARS-CoV-2 infection in CAST and FEW, and the differential gene expressions in immune response and immune cell may be risk factors for the infection. In summary, the GD mice, derived from the multi-parental panel, provided promising murine models for exploring sophisticated pathogenesis in SARS-CoV-2.

In Parkinson's disease, synucleinopathy is hypothesized to spread from the enteric nervous system, via the vagus nerve, to the central nervous system. Recent evidences collected in non-human primates challenge however the hypothesis of a transmission of α-synuclein (α-syn) pathology through the vagus nerve. Would the hypothesis whereby the bloodstream acts as a route for long-distance transmission of pathological α-syn hold true, an inter-individual transmission of synucleinopathy could occur via blood contact. Here, we used a parabiosis approach to join the circulatory systems of wild type and GFP transgenic C57BL/6 J mice, for which one of the partners parabiont received a stereotaxic intranigral injection of patient-derived α-syn aggregates. While the Lewy Body-receiving mice exhibited a loss of dopamine neurons and an increase in nigral S129 phosphorylated α-syn immunoreactivity, their parabiotic bloodstream-sharing partners did not show any trend for a lesion or change in S129 phosphorylated-α-syn levels. Altogether, our study suggests that, in the patient-derived α-synuclein aggregates-injected mouse model and within the selected time frame, the disease is not "transmitted" through the bloodstream.

Stealth α-synuclein amyloids proliferate in preparations of preformed fibrils and form aggressive self-replicating strains.

Mitophagy plays a key role in cleaning damaged and depolarized mitochondria to maintain cellular homeostasis and viability. Although it was originally found in neurodegenerative diseases, mitophagy is reported to play an important role in acute kidney injury. PINK1 and Parkin are key molecules in mitophagy pathway. Here, we used PINK1 knockout rats to examine the role of PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy in cisplatin nephrotoxicity. After cisplatin treatment, PINK1 knockout rats showed lower plasma creatinine and less tubular damage when compared with wild-type rats. Meanwhile, mitophagy indicated by autophagosome formation and LC3B-II accumulation was also attenuated in PINK1 knockout rats. Renal expression of PINK1 and Parkin were down-regulated while BNIP3L was up-regulated by cisplatin treatment, indicating a major role of BNIP3/BNIP3L pathway in cisplatin-induced mitophagy. Transmission electron microscopy showed that PINK1 deficiency inhibited cisplatin-induced mitochondrial fragmentation indicating an involvement of mitochondrial fusion and fission. Renal expression of mitochondrial dynamics related proteins including Fis1, Drp1, Mfn1, Mfn2, and Opa1 were checked by real-time PCR and western blots. The results showed PINK1 deficiency distinctly prevented cisplatin-induced up-regulation of DRP1. Finally, PINK1 deficiency alleviated cisplatin-induced tubular apoptosis indicated by TUNEL assay as well as the expression of caspase3 and cleaved caspase3. Together, these results suggested PINK1 deficiency ameliorated cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury in rats, possibly via inhibiting DRP1-mediated mitochondrial fission and excessive mitophagy.

Adenine is commonly used to establish the animal models for chronic kidney injury and its renal interstitial fibrosis.As an endogenous substance,adenine-induced kidney damage has not yet been fully studied and elucidated,except for inflammatory reaction.Here we analyzed the proteomics of kidney of rats after adenine overloading using LS-MS/MS assay,and observed the role of anemoside B4 (B4).The results showed that adenine could down-regulate 285 proteins and up-regulate 164 proteins in rat kidney tissue compared with the normal group.Down-regulated proteins mainly affected related pathways,such as energy metabolism,while up-regulated proteins affected inflammatory response pathways and metabolic pathways.B4 could significantly reverse the down-regulation of about 40 proteins,which were involved in mitochondria,redox processes,extracellular exosomes,acetylation and other signaling pathways.Simultaneously,B4 could inhibit the up-regulation of five proteins caused by adenine,which were involved in cell cycle,oocyte meiosis,PI3K-Akt and other signaling pathways.Further experimental results of mRNA expression using real-time PCR assay supported the proteomic analysis.Therefore,we proposed that the damage of rat kidney caused by adenine was more complicated,not only with an inflammatory reaction,but also with extensive effects to various metabolic processes in the body.This work provided a valuable clue for comprehensive understanding of adenine-induced renal damage.

Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin-8 (TRPM8) reportedly plays a fundamental role in a variety of processes including cold sensation, thermoregulation, pain transduction and tumorigenesis. However, the role of TRPM8 in inflammation under cold conditions is not well known. Since cooling allows the convergence of primary injury and injury-induced inflammation, we hypothesized that the mechanism of the protective effects of cooling might be related to TRPM8. We therefore investigated the involvement of TRPM8 activation in the regulation of inflammatory cytokines. The results showed that TRPM8 expression in the mouse hypothalamus was upregulated when the ambient temperature decreased; simultaneously, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) was downregulated. The inhibitory effect of TRPM8 on TNFα was mediated by nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB). Specifically, cold stress stimulated the expression of TRPM8, which promoted the interaction of TRPM8 and NFκB, thereby suppressing NFκB nuclear localization. This suppression consequently led to the inhibition of TNFα gene transcription. The present data suggest a possible theoretical foundation for the anti-inflammatory role of TRPM8 activation, providing an experimental basis that could contribute to the advancement of cooling therapy for trauma patients.

After being studied for approximately a century, berberine (BBR) has been found to act on various targets and pathways. A great challenge in the pharmacological analysis of BBR at present is to identify which target(s) plays a decisive role. In the study described herein, a rescue experiment was designed to show the important role of mitochondria in BBR activity. A toxic dose of BBR was applied to inhibit cell proliferation and mitochondrial activity, then α-ketobutyrate (AKB), an analogue of pyruvate that serves only as an electron receptor of NADH, was proven to partially restore cell proliferation. However, mitochondrial morphology damage and TCA cycle suppression were not recovered by AKB. As the AKB just help to regenerate NAD+, which is make up for part function of mitochondrial, the recovered cell proliferation stands for the contribution of mitochondria to the activity of BBR. Our results also indicate that BBR suppresses tumour growth and reduces energy charge and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number in a HepG2 xenograft model. In summary, our study suggests that mitochondria play an important role in BBR activity regarding tumour cell proliferation and metabolism.

Pomegranate leaf (PGL) has a definite role in regulating lipid metabolism. However, pharmacokinetic results show the main active ingredient, ellagic acid, in PGL has lower oral bioavailability, suggesting that the lipid-lowering effect of PGL may act through inhibiting lipid absorption in the small intestine. Our results demonstrated that pomegranate leaf and its main active ingredients (i.e., ellagic acid, gallic acid, pyrogallic acid and tannic acid) were capable of inhibiting pancreatic lipase activity in vitro. In computational molecular docking, the four ingredients had good affinity for pancreatic lipase. Acute lipid overload experiments showed that a large dosage of PGL significantly reduced serum total cholesterol (TG) and triglycerides (TC) levels in addition to inhibiting intestinal lipase activity, which demonstrated that PGL could inhibit lipase activity and reduce the absorption of lipids. We also found that PGL could reverse the reduced tight-junction protein expression due to intestinal lipid overload, promote Occludin and Claudin4 expression in the small intestine, and enhance the intestinal mucosal barrier. In conclusion, we demonstrated that PGL can inhibit lipid absorption and reduce blood TG and TC by targeting pancreatic lipase, promoting tight-junction protein expression and thereby preventing intestinal mucosa damage from an overload of lipids in the intestine.

OBJECTIVE:To explore the anti-nociceptive effect of patchouli alcohol (PA), the essential oil isolated from Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Bent, and determine the mechanism in molecular levels.METHODS:The acetic acid-induced writhing test and formalin-induced plantar injection test in mice were employed to confirm the effect in vivo. Intracellular calcium ion was imaged to verify PA on mu-opioid receptor (MOR). Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) and MOR of mouse brain were expressed for determination of PA's target. Cellular experiments were carried out to find out COX2 and MOR expression induced by PA.RESULTS:PA significantly reduced latency period of visceral pain and writhing induced by acetic acid saline solution (P<0.01) and allodynia after intra-plantar formalin (P<0.01) in mice. PA also up-regulated COX2 mRNA and protein (P<0.05) with a down-regulation of MOR (P<0.05) both in in vivo and in vitro experiments, which devote to the analgesic effect of PA. A decrease in the intracellular calcium level (P<0.05) induced by PA may play an important role in its anti-nociceptive effect. PA showed the characters of enhancing the MOR expression and reducing the intracellular calcium ion similar to opioid effect.CONCLUSIONS:Both COX2 and MOR are involved in the mechanism of PA's anti-nociceptive effect, and the up-regulation of the receptor expression and the inhibition of intracellular calcium are a new perspective to PA's effect on MOR.

Heat stress can stimulate an increase in body temperature, which is correlated with increased expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). The exact mechanism underlying the HSP70 and TNFα induction is unclear. Berberine (BBR) can significantly inhibit the temperature rise caused by heat stress, but the mechanism responsible for the BBR effect on HSP70 and TNFα signaling has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between the expression of HSP70 and TNFα and the effects of BBR under heat conditions, using in vivo and in vitro models. The expression levels of HSP70 and TNFα were determined using RT-PCR and Western blotting analyses. The results showed that the levels of HSP70 and TNFα were up-regulated under heat conditions (40 °C). HSP70 acted as a chaperone to maintain TNFα homeostasis with rising the temperature, but knockdown of HSP70 could not down-regulate the level of TNFα. Furthermore, TNFα could not influence the expression of HSP70 under normal and heat conditions. BBR targeted both HSP70 and TNFα by suppressing their gene transcription, thereby decreasing body temperature under heat conditions. In conclusion, BBR has a potential to be developed as a therapeutic strategy for suppressing the thermal effects in hot environments.

目的:石榴叶总鞣质（PLT）具有降低高糖高脂模型动物以及单纯性肥胖动物模型血中三酰甘油（TG）的作用。方法:为深入研究其降脂作用机理,在给予小鼠一定量的PLT后不同时间一次性灌胃橄榄油,测定血中TG浓度变化与时间的关系。结果:实验结果显示,提前0.5 h灌胃PLT可以显著降低正常小鼠和肥胖小鼠口服橄榄油所致的血中TG水平上升,但是对于腹腔注射橄榄油引起的TG升高没有作用,鞣酸可以抑制口服和灌胃橄榄油引起的TG升高;提前2 h给予PLT对于复合橄榄油引起的TG的升高作用不明显,但是可以降低血中总胆固醇（TC）和血糖的浓度,鞣酸可以降低复合橄榄油引起的TG、TC和血糖的升高。结论:总之,PLT可以显著减少肠道脂质的吸收,起到降脂减肥的作用。PLT中的鞣酸为其主要有效成分。

本文以中药小分子为例对小分子药物的跨膜转运研究进展及方法进行了综述,并结合作者研究成果,对小分子药物跨膜转运与作用靶点进行了分析和探讨。目前,研究小分子转运的检测方法有HPLC、LC/MS,还可以借助其荧光成像利用共聚焦技术进行观测。在研究过程中,确定小分子的转运方式的同时,也要探讨其外排方式,并要确定其有无代谢及其可能的代谢产物。对小分子药物的细胞跨膜转运研究将有助于确定小分子作用的靶点,有助于对其药理作用的探讨和阐释。

中药治疗疾病的物质基础、药效和机制研究已较充分,然而靶点的研究进展相对缓慢,这和靶点研究本身的被动性和难度有一定关系。本文基于国内外文献报道,并结合笔者的研究实践,对此进行了较为系统的探讨。本文主要介绍三种技术路径:"线索"驱动、噬菌体展示以及亲和垂钓。并提及两种方案:酶解法和光交联法。基于这些技术方案,加强中药有效成分靶点研究的实践,将会有助于阐明中药治疗疾病的现代科学基础,有助于发展现代中药和创新中药。

Angelica dahurica (A. dahurica) is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant being used in clinical practice. The present study demonstrated that A. dahurica could reduce white-fat weight in high-fat-diet hyperlipidemic mice, decrease total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in the livers of both high-fat-diet and Triton WR1339 induced hyperlipidemic mice, and enhance the total hepatic lipase activities of them. These findings were further supported by the results derived from the experiments with HepG2 cells in vitro. In addition, the proteins related to lipids metabolism were investigated using LC-MS/MS, indicating that genes of lipid metabolism and lipid transport were regulated by A. dhurica. The results from LC-MS/MS were further conformed by Western blot and real time PCR assays. A. dahurica could down-regulate the expression of catalase (CAT) and sterol carrier protein2 (SCP2) and up-regulate the expression of lipid metabolism related genes-lipase member C (LIPC) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). In the Triton WR1339 mouse liver and HepG2 cells in vitro, A. dahurica was able to increase the expression of LIPC and PPARγ, confirming the results from in vivo experiments. Imperatorin showed the same activity as A. dahurica, suggesting it was one of the major active ingredients of the herb. In conclusion, our work represented a first investigation demonstrating that A. dahurica was able to regulate lipid metabolism and could be developed as a novel approach to fighting against fatty liver and obesity.

Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans), has developed into an useful model for biomedical research, particularly in the targets of novel drugs and the related mechanism.C.elegans, combining with cost-effective cultivation, simple biological structure, make for high-throughput screenings in vivo model.In this review, we explore the feasibility of C.elegans in drug activity evaluation of complex systems.Because of the body independence of C.elegans, it provided good platform for the efficacy and mechanism of research on new drugs as well as Chinese herbal extract in vivo, showing a good prospect.