Diammonium glycyrrhizinate ameliorates portal hypertension by regulating portal macrophage oxidation and superoxide dismutase 3

Hepatoprotective effect of diammonium glycyrrhizinate and neuroprotective effect of piperazine ferulate on AmB-induced liver and kidney injury by suppressing apoptosis in vitro and in vivo

Amphotericin B (AmB) induced liver and kidney injury is often responsible for hepatic and renal dysfunction. Therefore, the protection strategy on liver and renal functions in patients treated with AmB should be emphasized. In this paper, diammonium glycyrrhizinate (DG) and piperazine ferulate (PF) were taken as the research object to study its hepatoprotective and neuroprotective effect on AmB-induced liver and kidney damage in vitro and in vivo. The microplate method and ELISA kits were employed for the biochemical detection in the serum and urine of mice. Flow cytometric analysis and western blotting analysis were conducted to study the mechanism of DG and PF. Our results confirmed the prevention capacity of DG and PF on AmB-induced liver and kidney injury through the alleviation of pathological changes and enzyme reducing action. Furthermore, DG and PF suppressed ROS-mediated mitochondrial apoptosis in AmB-treated mice and cells through Caspase pathway and Caspase-independent AIF pathway. In summary, DG and PF could protect AmB-induced hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity by disrupting oxidative stress and apoptosis.

Glycyrrhizin and the Related Preparations: An Inspiring Resource for the Treatment of Liver Diseases

Liver diseases and their related complications endanger the health of millions of people worldwide. The prevention and treatment of liver diseases are still serious challenges both in China and globally. With the improvement of living standards, the prevalence of metabolic liver diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic liver disease, has increased at an alarming rate, resulting in more cases of end-stage liver disease. Therefore, the discovery of novel therapeutic drugs for the treatment of liver diseases is urgently needed. Glycyrrhizin (GL), a triterpene glycoside from the roots of licorice plants, possesses a wide range of pharmacological and biological activities. Currently, GL preparations (GLPs) have certain advantages in the treatment of liver diseases, with good clinical effects and fewer adverse reactions, and have shown broad application prospects through multitargeting therapeutic mechanisms, including antisteatotic, anti-oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, antifibrotic, anticancer, and drug interaction activities. This review summarizes the currently known biological activities of GLPs and their medical applications in the treatment of liver diseases, and highlights the potential of these preparations as promising therapeutic options and their alluring prospects for the treatment of liver diseases.

Recent advances in promising drugs for primary prevention of gastroesophageal variceal bleeding with cirrhotic portal hypertension

BACKGROUND

Gastroesophageal variceal bleeding is one of the most severe complications of patients with cirrhosis. Although primary prevention drugs, including non-selective β-blockers, have effectively reduced the incidence of bleeding, their efficacy is limited due to side effects and related contraindications. With recent advances in precision medicine, precise drug treatment provides better treatment efficacy.

DATA SOURCES

Literature search was conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE and Web of Science for relevant articles published up to May 2022. Information on clinical trials was obtained from https://clinicaltrials.gov/ and http://www.chictr.org.cn/.

RESULTS

The in-depth understanding of the pathogenesis and advances of portal hypertension has enabled the discovery of multiple molecular targets for promising drugs. According to the site of action, these drugs could be classified into four classes: intrahepatic, extrahepatic, both intrahepatic and extrahepatic targets and others. All these classes of drugs offer advantages over traditional treatments in prevention of gastroesophageal variceal bleeding in patients with cirrhotic portal hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS

This review classified and summarized the promising drugs, which prevent gastroesophageal variceal bleeding by targeting specific markers of pathogenesis of portal hypertension, demonstrating the significance of using the precision medicine strategy to discover and develop promising drugs for the primary prevention of gastroesophageal variceal bleeding in patients with cirrhotic portal hypertension.

Oxidative stress is involved in immunosuppression and macrophage regulation in glioblastoma

Oxidative stress dually affected cancer progression, while its effect on glioblastomas remained unclear. Herein, we clustered the multicenter glioblastoma cohorts based on the oxidative-stress-responsive genes (OSS) expression. We found that cluster 2 with high OSS levels suffered a worse prognosis. Functional analyses and immune-related analyses results exhibited that M2-like pro-tumoral macrophages and neutrophils were enriched in cluster 2, while Natural killer cells' infiltration was decreased. The increased M2-like pro-tumoral macrophages in cluster 2 was confirmed by immunofluorescence. An integrated single-cell analysis validated the malignant features of cluster 2 neoplastic cells and discovered their crosstalk with M2-like pro-tumoral macrophages. Moreover, we observed that SOD3 knockdown might decrease the M2-like pro-tumoral transformation of macrophage in vitro and in vivo. Comprehensively, we revealed oxidative stress' prognostic and immunosuppressive potential in glioblastoma and discovered SOD3's potential role in regulating macrophage M2-like pro-tumoral transformation.