Role of inflammatory cytokines in genesis and treatment of atherosclerosis. Looking at foam cells through a different lens

The Effects of Red Palm Oil, Koja Bay Leaves, and Passion Fruit Seeds Formulation on Antioxidant Activity, Antihyperlipidemia, BDNF, and Lipase Enzyme Activity on Sprague-Dawley Rats

Background

Local wisdom food ingredients in North Sumatra, Indonesia, are a source of phenolics which have antioxidant, antihyperlipidemia, neuronal survival, and growth. Administering products with antioxidant properties can provide a supporting effect in preventing inflammation and neurodegenerative process.

Objective

The main objective of this study was to analyze the formulation of red palm oil (Elaeis guineensis Jacq), koja bay leaves (Murraya koenigii L Spreng), and passion fruit seeds (Passiflora edulis Sims) to improve lipid profile, antioxidant activity, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), and lipase enzyme activity of Sprague-Dawley rats.

Methods

This study was an in vivo and pre-post experimental study, starting with analyzing flavonoid of the three extract ingredients, then tested by giving it to rats for 14 days and ending with induction administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for two days. This pre-post study on animals involved 36 rats divided into 6 groups. At the end of the study, termination and examination of malondialdehyde, lipid profile, glucose, BDNF, lipase enzyme activity and histopathological examination were carried out.

Results

The study results showed that there were significant values in several parameters, which were body weight, LDL, LDL/HDL ratio, BDNF, and lipase enzyme activity especially in the group of rats given LPS and the group with high calories-fat-protein. This study showed that there were significant differences in body weight, LDL levels, and LDL/HDL ratio in each group of rats, especially in the group given the formulation of the three extract ingredients, the significant dose showed in 300mg/kg body weight (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The formulation of red palm oil, koja bay leaves, and passion fruit seeds showed significant reduction in LDL levels, LDL/HDL ratio, BDNF, and lipase enzyme activity.

Nanomaterials as Promising Theranostic Tools in Nanomedicine and Their Applications in Clinical Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

In recent decades, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, nanomaterials have been widely used in the medical field, showing great potential due to their unique physical and chemical properties including minimal size and functionalized surface characteristics. Nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles and polymeric nanoparticles have been extensively studied in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that seriously threaten human life and health, and are regarded to significantly improve the disadvantages of traditional diagnosis and treatment platforms, such as poor effectiveness, low sensitivity, weak security and low economy. In this review, we report and discuss the development and application of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases based mainly on published research in the last five years. We first briefly introduce the improvement of several nanomaterials in imaging diagnosis and genomic sequencing. We then focus on the application of nanomaterials in the treatment of diseases, and select three diseases that people are most concerned about and that do the most harm: tumor, COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. First, we introduce the characteristics of nanoparticles according to the excellent effect of nanoparticles as delivery carriers of anti-tumor drugs. We then review the application of various nanoparticles in tumor therapy according to the classification of nanoparticles, and emphasize the importance of functionalization of nanomaterials. Second, COVID-19 has been the hottest issue in the health field in the past two years, and nanomaterials have also appeared in the relevant treatment. We enumerate the application of nanomaterials in various stages of viral pathogenesis according to the molecular mechanism of the complete pathway of viral infection, pathogenesis and transmission, and predict the application prospect of nanomaterials in the treatment of COVID-19. Third, aiming at the most important causes of human death, we focus on atherosclerosis, aneurysms and myocardial infarction, three of the most common and most harmful cardiovascular diseases, and prove that nanomaterials could be involved in a variety of therapeutic approaches and significantly improve the therapeutic effect in cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we believe nanotechnology will become more widely involved in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the future, potentially helping to overcome bottlenecks under existing medical methods.

Overexpression of hsa_circ_0001445 reverses oxLDL‑induced inhibition of HUVEC proliferation via SRSF1

Atherosclerosis is a primary cause of multiple types of cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction. In addition, injury of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) can lead to the development of atherosclerosis. Circular (circ)RNAs participate in atherosclerosis. It has previously been shown that circRNA cSMARCA5 (hsa_circ_0001445) expression is downregulated in atherosclerosis. However, the effects of hsa_circ_0001445 on the proliferation of HUVECs remain unclear. In order to mimic atherosclerosis in vitro, HUVECs were treated with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL). The expression levels of specific genes and proteins were detected in HUVECs by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blot analysis, respectively. Cell proliferation was assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8 and 5-Ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine staining. Cell apoptosis and 5,5′,6,6′-Tetrachloro-1,1′,3,3′-tetraethyl-imidacarbocyanine staining were examined by flow cytometry. In addition, the association between hsa_circ_0001445 and serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1) was investigated by RNA pull-down assay. hsa_circ_0001445 expression was downregulated in oxLDL-treated HUVECs. Moreover, oxLDL-induced inhibition of HUVEC proliferation was significantly reversed by overexpression of hsa_circ_0001445. oxLDL notably inhibited tube formation and mitochondrial membrane potential in HUVECs, while these effects were markedly reversed by hsa_circ_0001445 overexpression. Furthermore, overexpression of hsa_circ_0001445 reversed oxLDL-induced activation of β-catenin by binding to SRSF1. Collectively, these data demonstrated that overexpression of hsa_circ_0001445 reversed oxLDL-induced inhibition of HUVEC proliferation via activation of the SRSF1/β-catenin axis. These findings may provide novel targets for the treatment of atherosclerosis.