[The association of Bcl-2 gene polymorphism with the esophageal cancer and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma in Hebei Province]

Upregulation of circFOXP1 attenuates inflammation and apoptosis induced by ox-LDL in human umbilical vein endothelial cells by regulating the miR-185-5p/BCL-2 axis

The pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is closely related to an abnormal function of the coronary arteries due to myocardial ischemia, hypoxia, or necrosis, which poses a threat to human health. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the role of circFOXP1 in controlling endothelial cell function during atherosclerosis (AS), and further investigate its potential molecular mechanism of regulation. Through Starbase database analysis, we predicted that circFOXP1 can sponge miR-185-5p that targets BCL-2. We found that interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrois factor (TNF)-α, and IL-1β were significantly upregulated in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice compared with those in the control mice. CircFOXP1 was also significantly upregulated in the AS-mice model and AS-cell model. Moreover, miR-185-5p overexpression was found to inhibit BCL-2 protein expression, which consequently reduced the proliferation, and increased the oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) apoptotic rate. Taken together, our data show that circFOXP1 can further aggravate endothelial cell injury by regulating the miR-185-5p/BCL-2 signal axis.

Salvia chinensia Benth induces autophagy in esophageal cancer cells via AMPK/ULK1 signaling pathway

Salvia chinensia Benth (Shijianchuan in Chinese, SJC) has been used as a traditional anti-cancer herb. SJC showed good anti-esophageal cancer efficacy based on our clinical application. However, the current research on SJC is minimal, and its anti-cancer effect lacks scientific certification. This study aims to clarify the inhibitory effect of SJC on esophageal cancer and explore its underlying mechanism. Q-Orbitrap high-resolution LC/MS was used to identify the primary chemical constituents in SJC. Cell proliferation and colony formation assays showed that SJC could effectively inhibit the growth of esophageal tumor cells in vitro. To clarify its mechanism of action, proteomic and bioinformatic analyses were carried out by combining tandem mass labeling and two-dimensional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD035823. The results indicated that SJC could activate AMPK signaling pathway and effectively promote autophagy in esophageal cancer cells. Therefore, we further used western blotting to confirm that SJC activated autophagy in esophageal cancer cells through the AMPK/ULK1 signaling pathway. The results showed that P-AMPK and P-ULK1 were significantly up-regulated after the treatment with SJC. The ratio of autophagosomes marker proteins LC3II/I was significantly increased. In addition, the expression of the autophagy substrate protein P62 decreased with the degradation of autophagosomes. Using lentiviral transfection of fluorescent label SensGFP-StubRFP-LC3 protein and revalidation of LC3 expression before and after administration by laser confocal microscopy. Compared with the control group, the fluorescence expression of the SJC group was significantly enhanced, indicating that it promoted autophagy in esophageal cancer cells. Cell morphology and the formation of autophagosomes were observed by transmission electron microscopy. Our study shows that the tumor suppressor effect of SJC is related to promoting autophagy in esophageal tumor cells via the AMPK/ULK1 signaling pathway.