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Duan B, Hu Q, Ding F, Huang F, Wang W, Yin N, Liu Z, Zhang S, He D, Lu Q. The effect and mechanism of Huangqin-Baishao herb pair in the treatment of dextran sulfate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis. Heliyon 2023; 9:e23082. [PMID: 38144295 PMCID: PMC10746484 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2023] [Revised: 10/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The haungqing (Scutellariae Radix) and baishao (Paeoniae Radix Alba) herb pair (HBHP) is a common prescribed herbal formula or is added to other traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions to treat ulcerative colitis (UC). However, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Purpose Elucidate the efficacy and potential mechanism of HBHP against UC. Methods First, The UC model of mice induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) was established. The mice were randomly divided into Control group, DSS group, SASP group (390 mg/kg), and HPHP group (1.95 g/kg), with 8 mice per group. Drugs were administrated via oral gavage for 7 days. Then, Disease activity index (DAI), length of the colon, histopathology, and changes in inflammatory cytokines in colonic tissues were analyzed to assess the effect of HBHP on UC. Besides, Network pharmacology was applied to identify the active compounds, core targets of HBHP in the treatment of UC, and the corresponding signaling pathways to explore the underlying mechanisms. Finally, Western blot (WB), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and molecular docking were performed to validate the results. Results HBHP significantly reduced DAI score and decreased colon length shortening in DSS-induced UC mice. The administration of HBHP was able to effectively alleviated mucosal ulceration and epithelial destruction. In addition, HBHP treatment obviously - reduced the expressions of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in colon tissues (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). 35 bioactive compounds and 290 HBHP targets related to UC were obtained. Among them 3 key active compounds (baicalein, panicolin, and norwogonin) with higher degree values in the drug-compound-target network and 21 hub genes (STAT3, JAK2, SRC, AKT1, PIK3CA, and VEGFA, etc.) were identified. KEGG enrichment analysis suggested that HBHP's mechanisms mainly involve the JAK-STAT pathway. Abnormal activation of JAK/STAT signaling is believed to be involved in the pathogeneses of UC. Notably, WB and IHC showed that HBHP significantly down-regulated the protein expression levels of p-JAK2 (p < 0.05) and p-STAT3 (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). JAK2 and STAT3 might be core targets for the action of HBHP; this possibility was also supported by molecular docking. Conclusions HBHP could alleviate DSS-induced UC, reduce tissue inflammation, and its mechanism might primarily be achieved by inhibiting JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. Meanwhile, our work revealed that network pharmacology combined with experimental verification is a cogent means of studying the mechanism of TCM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bailu Duan
- Postdoctoral Research Station, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
- College of Basic Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China
| | - Qiong Hu
- First People's Hospital of Jiangxia District, Wuhan City & Union Jiangnan Hospital, HUST, Wuhan, 430200, China
| | - Fengmin Ding
- College of Basic Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China
| | - Fang Huang
- College of Basic Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China
| | - Wei Wang
- Postdoctoral Research Station, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
- Department of Orthopedics, Hubei Provincial Hospital of TCM Affiliated to Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430061, China
| | - Nina Yin
- College of Basic Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China
| | - Zhe Liu
- Postdoctoral Research Station, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
- College of Basic Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, 430065, China
| | - Song Zhang
- Postdoctoral Research Station, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
| | - Dongchu He
- Postdoctoral Research Station, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
| | - Qiping Lu
- Postdoctoral Research Station, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
- Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA, Wuhan, 430070, China
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Naschberger E, Flierl C, Huang J, Erkert L, Gamez-Belmonte R, Gonzalez-Acera M, Bober M, Mehnert M, Becker C, Schellerer VS, Britzen-Laurent N, Stürzl M. Analysis of the interferon-γ-induced secretome of intestinal endothelial cells: putative impact on epithelial barrier dysfunction in IBD. Front Cell Dev Biol 2023; 11:1213383. [PMID: 37645250 PMCID: PMC10460912 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1213383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
The development of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) involves the breakdown of two barriers: the epithelial barrier and the gut-vascular barrier (GVB). The destabilization of each barrier can promote initiation and progression of the disease. Interestingly, first evidence is available that both barriers are communicating through secreted factors that may accordingly serve as targets for therapeutic modulation of barrier functions. Interferon (IFN)-γ is among the major pathogenesis factors in IBD and can severely impair both barriers. In order to identify factors transmitting signals from the GVB to the epithelial cell barrier, we analyzed the secretome of IFN-γ-treated human intestinal endothelial cells (HIEC). To this goal, HIEC were isolated in high purity from normal colon tissues. HIEC were either untreated or stimulated with IFN-γ (10 U/mL). After 48 h, conditioned media (CM) were harvested and subjected to comparative hyper reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (HRM™ MS). In total, 1,084 human proteins were detected in the HIEC-CM. Among these, 43 proteins were present in significantly different concentrations between the CM of IFN-γ- and control-stimulated HIEC. Several of these proteins were also differentially expressed in various murine colitis models as compared to healthy animals supporting the relevance of these proteins secreted by inflammatory activated HIEC in the inter-barrier communication in IBD. The angiocrine pathogenic impact of these differentially secreted HIEC proteins on the epithelial cell barrier and their perspectives as targets to treat IBD by modulation of trans-barrier communication is discussed in detail.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Naschberger
- Division of Molecular and Experimental Surgery, Department of Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Christian Flierl
- Division of Molecular and Experimental Surgery, Department of Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Jinghao Huang
- Division of Molecular and Experimental Surgery, Department of Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Lena Erkert
- Department of Medicine I, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Reyes Gamez-Belmonte
- Department of Medicine I, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Miguel Gonzalez-Acera
- Department of Medicine I, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | | | | | - Christoph Becker
- Department of Medicine I, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Vera S. Schellerer
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Nathalie Britzen-Laurent
- Division of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Michael Stürzl
- Division of Molecular and Experimental Surgery, Department of Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
- Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
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