Mosquitoes that
spread everywhere not only cause irritation, redness and discomfort after
biting, but also can transmit contagious diseases. Many insect repellents have
been used for decades, but were found either toxic or ineffective. Thiamine
hydrochloride which is a water soluble vitamin was claimed to have certain
insect repellent activity. However, there is a demand for a reassessment of the
minimum required dose that is sufficient to perform a topical repellency on the
human skin. The article by Badawi et al. estimated a
dose response line through “probit plane analysis”. The repellent dose
corresponding to percent protection of 50% and
99.9% was determined and validated.
Colony stimulating
factor 1 (CSF1) receptor (CSF1R) is a receptor protein-tyrosine kinase
specifically expressed in monocyte-lineage cells. The article by Uesato et al. characterized the pharmacological
properties of JTE-952, a novel CSF1R tyrosine kinase inhibitor. JTE-952
potently inhibited human CSF1R kinase activity and displayed no marked
inhibitory activity against other kinases excluding tropomyosin-related kinase
A. JTE-952 potently inhibited the CSF1-induced proliferation of human
macrophages, and lipopolysaccharide-induced proinflammatory cytokine production
by human macrophages and in whole blood. In addition, orally delivered JTE-952 significantly
attenuated arthritis severity in a mouse model of collagen-induced arthritis. These
results indicate that JTE-952 is a potentially clinically useful agent for the
treatment of a variety of human inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid
arthritis.
Oxaliplatin is the first-line chemotherapy for tumor
treatment often accompanied with peripheral neuropathic pain. There are no
specific drugs for the disease at present. Current studies have shown that curcumin
has various biological activities like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
antitumor and so on, while few studies were conducted
about its role in oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathic pain. The article by Zhang et al. demonstrated that curcumin could alleviate
oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathic pain; the mechanism might be
inhibiting oxidative stress-mediated activation of NF-κB and mitigating
neuroinflammation. This study will provide an experimental foundation for the
clinical application of curcumin in oxaliplatin-induced neuropathic pain.
Extensive studies in recent years have revealed important functions of
the Hippo intracellular signaling pathway in the control of organ development,
stem cell biology, regeneration, and cancer. While a number of novel drugs are
currently under development to modulate the Hippo pathway for cancer treatment
and regenerative medicine, the molecular networks involving in the regulation
of the Hippo pathway are just beginning to be elucidated. The review article by
Shimoda and Moroishi summarizes the emerging understanding of the interplay
between the Hippo pathway and non-coding RNAs, discussing a new approach to target this pathway for future
drug discovery.
Yoshioka and Miura et
al. have focused on the relationship between the injection timings and the
severity of toxicity, which they advocated as “chronotoxicology”. The aim of this
study was to investigate the “chronotoxicity” of streptomycin (SM) in relation
to its circadian periodicity. Both the mortality and the nephrotoxicity levels
were severe by the SM injection during the “dark phase” than during the “light
phase”, representing that SM showed evident chronotoxicity. The results
indicated that chronotoxicology may provide valuable information on the
importance of injection timings for evaluations of toxicity, and considering
when determining any undesirable side effects.
Allergic contact
dermatitis (ACD) is one of the most common
skin diseases caused by hapten-modified
proteins. The article demonstrated that metformin inhibited inflammatory responses in macrophages. Furthermore, metformin also enhanced autophagic flux,
inhibited the phosphorylation of AKT/mTOR, MAPKs related protein levels and the
level of miR-221 in macrophages. Besides, metformin attenuated 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene
(DNFB) -induced ACD partly through the inhibition of macrophage activation and
the induction of autophagic flux. Taken together, the results indicated that
metformin ameliorates ACD through enhanced autophagic flux to inhibit
macrophage activation and provides a potential contribution to ACD treatment.
Thrombin is a serine protease as a blood
coagulation factor, but also has been implicated in the pathology of brain
ischemia, stroke or neurogenerative diseases. In this study, Akaishi et al. have
demonstrated that the
synthetic curcumin derivative CNB-001 suppresses thrombin-induced NO production
through the inhibition of ERK and p38 MAPK pathways in microglia. In contrast, the
authors have previously reported that CNB-001 suppressed LPS-induced NO
production through the inhibition of p38 MAPK, but not ERK. Therefore, additional
studies on differences in signaling
cascades by which thrombin and LPS promote ERK phosphorylation will help to identify
the direct molecular target of CNB-001.
Hypersensitive
reaction to pathogenic attacks in plants triggers the expression of numerous
plant genes encoding defense proteins. Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins play
an important role in inducing strong self-defense systems by getting
accumulated in intercellular parts and vacuoles. Joo et al. cloned a PR protein
gene from Oenanthe javanica (OJPR),
which included PR-10 allergen without putative IgE binding residues, comprising
154-amino acids with a molecular mass of 16 kDa. The results of this study
suggested that the newly identified and expressed OJPR may possess the
biological activity and play a role in modulating host defense responses via
Toll-like receptor signal cascades together with anti-viral activities in immune
cells.
Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the major cause of
glaucoma, which is the second
leading cause of blindness. To develop new IOP-lowering treatments, the article by
Nagano et al. generated a novel
ATX inhibitor as an ophthalmic drug by high-throughput
screening, followed by inhibitor optimization. Administration of the optimized ATX inhibitor (Aiprenon)
reduced IOP in laser-treated mice exhibiting elevated IOP
and higher level of ATX activity in AH and normal mice in vivo. The stimulation of ATX induced outflow resistance in the trabecular
pathway; however, administration of Aiprenon recovered the outflow resistance in vitro.
Recent clinical studies indicate that
sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors exhibit a renoprotective
effect. However, the mechanism underlying this effect has not been fully
elucidated. The article by Takakura and Takasu found that single intravenous
injection of ipragliflozin, a selective SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose that increased
glucose excretion reduced creatinine clearance without affecting systemic blood
pressure in type 2 diabetic mellitus STD-fatty rats. These results suggest that
SGLT2 inhibition directly reduces whole-kidney glomerular filtration rate, most
likely due to a reduction in intraglomerular pressure, by altering local renal hemodynamics.
This effect might explain the renoprotective effects demonstrated in clinical
studies, at least partly.
Glucose-stimulated insulin secretion is controlled by both exocytosis and endocytosis in pancreatic β-cells. Although endocytosis is a fundamental step to maintain cellular responses to the secretagogue, the molecular mechanism of endocytosis remains poorly defined. Kimura et al. have demonstrated the regulatory mechanisms of the IQGAP1/GDP-bound Rab27a endocytic machinery. PKCε, which was activated by glucose stimulation, phosphorylated IQGAP1 on Ser-1443, thereby promoting the dissociation of the IQGAP1/GDP-bound Rab27a complex in pancreatic β-cells. Insulin secretion is controlled by stage-specific complex formation and the dissociation of IQGAP1 from its specific binding partners.
Reconstituted discoidal high-density lipoprotein
particles are called lipid nanodisks, which can be developed for biocompatible
delivery vehicles. The article by Tanaka et al. designed lipid nanodisks using
a peptide (LpA peptide) with the LDL receptor-binding region of apolipoprotein
E (apoE). Discoidal LpA nanodisks of approximately 10 nm in size were successfully
prepared. In addition, the uptake of LpA nanodisks was higher than that of apoE
nanodisks especially under the condition where the expression of LDL receptor
was increased (LPDS) compared with the normal condition (FBS). Thus, LpA
nanodisks are potential biocompatible delivery vehicles targeting LDL
receptors.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has few
beneficial treatments for patients.
Recently, the involvement of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) in ME/CFS has
been reported. However, it is little
known whether
PDH could be a therapeutic target of ME/CFS.
In this paper, Ohba et al.
established ME/CFS model in mice and investigated the involvement of PDH. In an ME/CFS group, PDH activity was
decreased in the mitochondrial fraction of the gastrocnemius muscle. Sodium dichloroacetate (DCA), which is a PDH
activator, recovered fatigue-like behavior in ME/CFS group. These findings indicate that PDH might be an
important therapeutic target for treatment of ME/CFS.
Leukocyte migration across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a key step in the progression of brain dysfunction in systemic inflammation. The key regulatory molecules at the BBB involved in leucocyte-endothelial interaction would be promising druggable targets. Sato et al. have established the LC-MS/MS-based comprehensive absolute protein quantification system for the cluster of differentiation (CD) antigens and identified the key molecules at mouse BBB in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced systemic inflammation based on their absolute protein expressions. Their findings should be helpful in the development of BBB-targeting drugs to block leukocyte migration associated with central nervous system disorders.
The article by Shirasago et al demonstrated that the coffee-related compounds caffeic acid and tannic acid act on hepatitis C virus (HCV) particles and abrogate their infectivity. Particularly, the authors demonstrated that caffeic acid significantly reduced cellular attachment of HCV particles and their interaction with host apolipoprotein E, which is essential for HCV infectivity. Intake of coffee or the coffee-related compounds caffeic acid and tannic acid, which are inexpensive and easy to supply, might lead to prevention of HCV infection and slower disease progression after HCV infection.
The
growth-inhibitory effects of Am80 (tamibarotene), a specific retinoic acid
receptor (RAR) α/β agonist, in combination with a histone deacetylase (HDAC)
inhibitor, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) on androgen receptor positive
or negative prostate cancer cell lines were investigated. Ishigami-Yuasa et al.
found that the combination therapy of Am80 and SAHA showed an enhanced
growth-inhibitory effect on LNCaP cells. Studies with various HDAC
isotype-selective inhibitors indicated that the Class IIb HDACs, especially
HDAC6, had significant roles in the enhanced effect of the combination. Thus, dual
targeting of Class IIb HDAC and RARα would be useful therapeutic strategy for
prostate cancer.
The delivery of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to liver is expected for the treatment of hepatic diseases. K. Sakai et al. developed two types of sulfo-albumins, macromolecular H2S prodrugs, for hepatic and intrahepatic targeting of H2S. Sulfide groups (source of H2S) were covalently bound to succinylated (Suc) and galactosylated (Gal) bovine serum albumin (BSA) for targeted delivery of H2S to hepatic nonparenchymal cells and parenchymal cells, respectively. Their results demonstrated targeted delivery of H2S prodrug to a specific type of liver cells using the chemical modification of targeting ligands.
CXC chemokine ligand (CXCL) 10 is a chemokine that binds to CXCR3 expressed on natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In this paper, Kikuchi et al. showed that forced expression of CXCL10 in murine colon carcinoma CT26 cells prevents their in vivo proliferation and liver metastasis by recruiting NK cells, suggesting that forced expression of CXCL10 in the colon tumors by gene delivery should lead to a favorable clinical outcome.
Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-induced contact hypersensitivity is a mouse model of skin allergy to chemicals. In this model, chemicals such as phthalate esters are known to enhance skin sensitization to FITC. The article by Matsuoka et al. demonstrated that butyl paraben (BP), a common preservative, enhances skin sensitization as revealed by ear-swelling response to FITC. Mechanistically, BP facilitates dendritic cell trafficking from skin to lymph nodes, and enhances cytokine production from lymph node cells. Their results provide direct in vivo evidence that BP, like phthalate esters, enhances sensitization to other chemicals.
How can you know the structural difference
between biosimilar and reference product? The structure of biosimilar products
is not the same as their original product because of post-translational
modifications. In the article by Tsuda et al., a valuable method with a papain
digestion and LC/TOF-MS analysis was established. Their new method can analyze
not only carbohydrate chains but also amino acids of bio-medicines including biosimilar
antibodies. This technology will provide a useful strategy to evaluate
bio-medicines including biosimilar antibodies.