Responses of intestinal morphology, immunity, antioxidant status and cecal microbiota to the mixture of glycerol monolaurate and cinnamaldehyde in laying hens

This study was to determine the effects of the mixture of glycerol monolaurate and cinnamaldehyde (GCM) supplementation on the intestinal morphology, immunity, antioxidant status and cecal microbiota of laying hens. A total of 1,120 healthy laying hens (Jingfen-1 strain) at the age of 14 wk were randomly divided into 4 groups with 10 replicates of 28 layers in each and layers were fed diets containing 0 (control group), or 250, 500, and 1,000 mg/kg GCM for 12 wk. The results showed that dietary supplementation with GCM significantly increased intestinal villus height and villus height/crypt depth, duodenal villus area, total superoxide disumutase activities in the liver and jejunum, jejunal glutathione peroxidase activities while decreased duodenal and jejunal crypt depth, hydrogen peroxide content in the liver and jejunal malondialdehyde content of laying hens aging 28 wk (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, GCM addition significantly increased serum immunoglobulin A and immunoglobulin M concentration of layers at the age of 20, 24, and 28 wk (P < 0.05). Moreover, it was observed in the 16S rRNA sequencing that the addition of GCM elevated the abundance and diversity of gut microbiota in laying hens. The predominant bacteria from each group were Bacteroidota and Firmicutes at the phylum level and Bacteroides and Lactobacillus were the dominant genera. The composition and structure of cecal microflora were changed by the addition of GCM to the diet of laying hens. In conclusion, the addition of GCM (500-1,000 mg/kg diet) can improve intestinal morphology, immune function, intestinal and liver antioxidant status and intestinal flora of laying hens, thereby improving intestinal digestion and absorption capacity. These findings provide a new way to further explore the mechanism of GCM improving intestinal health.

Knockdown of NADPH oxidase 4 reduces mitochondrial oxidative stress and neuronal pyroptosis following intracerebral hemorrhage

Intracerebral hemorrhage is often accompanied by oxidative stress induced by reactive oxygen species, which causes abnormal mitochondrial function and secondary reactive oxygen species generation. This creates a vicious cycle leading to reactive oxygen species accumulation, resulting in progression of the pathological process. Therefore, breaking the cycle to inhibit reactive oxygen species accumulation is critical for reducing neuronal death after intracerebral hemorrhage. Our previous study found that increased expression of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 4 (NADPH oxidase 4, NOX4) led to neuronal apoptosis and damage to the blood-brain barrier after intracerebral hemorrhage. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of NOX4 in the circle involving the neuronal tolerance to oxidative stress, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and modes of neuronal death other than apoptosis after intracerebral hemorrhage. We found that NOX4 knockdown by adeno-associated virus (AAV-NOX4) in rats enhanced neuronal tolerance to oxidative stress, enabling them to better resist the oxidative stress caused by intracerebral hemorrhage. Knockdown of NOX4 also reduced the production of reactive oxygen species in the mitochondria, relieved mitochondrial damage, prevented secondary reactive oxygen species accumulation, reduced neuronal pyroptosis and contributed to relieving secondary brain injury after intracerebral hemorrhage in rats. Finally, we used a mitochondria-targeted superoxide dismutase mimetic to explore the relationship between reactive oxygen species and NOX4. The mitochondria-targeted superoxide dismutase mimetic inhibited the expression of NOX4 and neuronal pyroptosis, which is similar to the effect of AAV-NOX4. This indicates that NOX4 is likely to be an important target for inhibiting mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production, and NOX4 inhibitors can be used to alleviate oxidative stress response induced by intracerebral hemorrhage.

LHPP impedes energy metabolism by inducing ubiquitin-mediated degradation of PKM2 in glioblastoma

Phospholysine phosphohistidine inorganic pyrophosphate phosphatase (LHPP) is a new-found tumor suppressor in a variety of tumors. While, it is still unknown about its role in glioma. In this study, we found that LHPP is abnormally decreasing or absent in glioblastoma, and the low expression of LHPP is associated with poor median survival in glioma patients. Functional assay revealed that LHPP-overexpression significantly inhibited U87MG and U118MG growth in vitro and in vivo. As to the mechanism, mass-spectrometric analysis indicated that the LHPP interacting proteins were mainly enriched in regulation of energy metabolism, including Carbon metabolism, Oxidative phosphorylation, and Glycolysis. Seahorse assay and metabolites detection confirmed that LHPP-overexpression obviously impeded glycolysis and respiration in U87MG and U118MG cells. For the further study, western blot assay showed that the protein level of PKM2 at dimeric, tetrameric, and total protein, were all decreased significantly, and its enzymatic activity was decreased as well. ChIP and RNAseq integrated analysis indicated that the decreased protein level of PKM2 was independent of PKM2 transcription, and LHPP did not reprogram transcription level of metabolic genome. Co-IP and immunofluorescence assay manifested that LHPP interacted with PKM2, and this interaction interfered the protein stability, then induced ubiquitin-mediated degradation of PKM2. Rescue assay confirmed that restoring the expression of PKM2 effectively reversed the restrained energy metabolism and the inhibited cancer cell growth caused by LHPP-overexpression in U87MG and U118MG cells. Taking together, we demonstrated that LHPP impedes the glycolysis and respiration during energy metabolic process via inducing ubiquitin-mediated degradation of PKM2, thus inhibits the growth of glioblastoma.

Effects of Enzyme Complex Supplementation to a Paddy-based Diet on Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Meat-type Ducks

Paddy rice is rarely used as a feed because of its high fiber content. In this study, two experiments were conducted to study the effects of supplementing an enzyme complex consisting of xylanase, beta-glucanase and cellulase, to paddy-based diets on the performance and nutrient digestibility in meat-type ducks. In the both experiments, meat-type ducks (Cherry Valley) were randomly assigned to four treatments. Treatment 1 was a basal diet of corn-soybean; treatment 2 was a basal diet of corn-paddy-soybean; treatment 3, had enzyme complex added to the corn-paddy-soybean basal diet at levels of 0.5 g/kg diet; and treatment 4, had enzyme complex added to the corn-paddy-soybean diet at levels of 1.0 g/kg diet. The results showed that the enzyme complex increased the ADG, and decreased the ADFI and F/G significantly (p<0.05) in the ducks, and the ADFI for the ducks fed the corn-paddy-soybean diet showed no difference compared to the ducks fed corn-soybean diets at all stages of the experiment (p<0.05). When corn was partially replaced by paddy, the digestibility of CP and NDF was decreased and increased, respectively (p<0.05), and the level of enzyme complex had a significant effect on both CP and NDF digestibility (p<0.05). As for the AME, addition of enzyme complex increased it significantly (p<0.05), but both diet types and levels of enzyme complex had no effect (p>0.05). The outcome of this research indicates that the application of enzyme complex made up of xylanase, beta-glucanase, and cellulase, in the corn-paddy-soybean diet, can improve performance and nutrition digestibility in meat-type ducks.

Branched-chain alkanols as skin permeation enhancers: quantitative structure-activity relationships

One long-standing approach for improving transdermal drug delivery is using penetration enhancers which reversibly decrease the skin barrier resistance. Though the skin permeation enhancement effect of chemical penetration enhancers has been studied extensively, their quantitative structure-activity relationships have not been adequately investigated. In this paper, we established the correlation equations between enhancement potencies and the physico-chemical parameters relevant to lipophilicity and position of hydroxyl group for 16 alkanols using the stepwise multiple linear regression analysis. These equations reveal that the enhancement potencies of alkanols are excellently correlated with their lipophilicity and position of the hydroxyl group. The enhancement potency of an alkanol will increase when it has greater lipophilicity but will decrease as the hydroxyl group moves from the end of the alkyl chain towards the center.

Constituents from the leaves of Rhododendron latoucheae

Twelve constituents from Rhododendron latoucheae were isolated. Among them, compounds 1 and 2, named rhodolatouside A and B, respectively, are new iridoids.