Cancer is one of the most serious diseases endangering human health. In view of the side effects caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it is necessary to develop low-toxic anti-cancer compounds. Polyphenols are natural compounds with anti-cancer properties and their application is a considerable choice. Pro-senescence therapy is a recently proposed anti-cancer strategy and has been shown to effectively inhibit cancer. It is of great significance to clarify the mechanisms of polyphenols on tumor suppression by inducing senescence. In this review, we delineated the characteristics of senescent cells, and summarized the mechanisms of polyphenols targeting tumor microenvironment and inducing cancer cell senescence for cancer prevention and therapy. Although many studies have shown that polyphenols effectively inhibit cancer by targeting senescence, it warrants further investigation in preclinical and clinical studies.

Insulin resistance, as a common metabolic disorder, may be caused by diet-induced obesity. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of dioscin on regulating insulin resistance of adipose tissue induced by a high-fat diet (HFD). An animal model was established successfully using C57BL/6J mice with high-fat feeding, followed by treatment with 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg dioscin through gavage for 18 weeks, and randomly divided into a control group, a HFD model group and a dioscin group treated with 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg/day dioscin for 12 weeks. Histopathological changes in adipose tissues were examined using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Biochemical parameters of the serum were also monitored, including glucose, insulin, total triglyceride, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and adipose insulin resistance (Adipo-IR) levels. Expression of the mRNA and associated proteins of the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1)/phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathways were determined using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot analysis, respectively. HOMA-IR and Adipo-IR values of mice fed with a HFD were significantly higher compared with those in the control group (P<0.01). However, dioscin administration significantly decreased HOMA-IR and Adipo-IR values in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.05), suggesting the effects of dioscin on attenuating insulin resistance. RT-qPCR results indicated that the associated genes of the IRS-1/PI3K/Akt pathway were significantly downregulated by HFD compared with the control group (P<0.05), while dioscin significantly increased the expression of those genes compared with the control group (P<0.05). Similarly, the significant increase in phosphorylated (p-)IRS-1/IRS-1 (P<0.05) and p-Akt/Akt (P<0.05) values were substantially reversed by dioscin treatment. Dioscin pronouncedly mitigated insulin resistance in adipose tissues through the IRS-1/PI3K/Akt pathway and has potential to be used as a novel therapeutic agent for the therapy of HFD-induced insulin resistance in adipose tissue.

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Bacterial infection has become one of the greatest threats to human health and the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria pose an urgent need to avoid bacterial resistant and sterilize bacteria. Aggregation-induced...

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This study is aimed at exploring the relationship between serum ferritin and blood lipids and the influence of diabetes and different hs-CRP levels. A total of 8163 subjects were analyzed. Participators were classified according to serum ferritin, diabetes, and two hs-CRP levels. Blood lipids were determined using standardized methods and conditions. Except for HDL-C, there was a significant increase in blood lipids in the progressive ferritin group with normal hs-CRP levels (P<0.05). But HDL-C was just the opposite (P<0.0001). In nondiabetic patients, TG, TC, and LDL-C were significantly elevated in the progressive ferritin group (P<0.05). And, HDL-C was just the opposite (P<0.05). The generalized linear model and the parsimonious model showed that serum TG was positively correlated with ferritin, and LDL-C was negatively correlated with ferritin (P<0.05). But the correlation between LDL-C and ferritin was broken (P>0.05). After a sufficient adjustment, there was a positive correlation between serum TG and ferritin and a negative correlation between LDL-C and ferritin. Nonetheless, a negative correlation between LDL-C and ferritin is influenced by diabetes frailly. And, there was no change of relationship between lipids and ferritin in different hs-CRP levels. We found a real relationship between ferritin and lipids after sufficient adjustment for confounders.

Potassium is an essential element for plant, and high-affinity K+ uptake system plays a crucial role in potassium absorption and transportation. Here we report the isolation and characterization of a HKT1 homolog from C3 halophyte Suaeda salsa (L.) (SsHKT1), particularly under low K+ treatment. The SsHKT1 cDNA was 2033 nucleotides long including 1650 bp ORF for a 550 amino acids peptide and a predicted molecular mass of 63.0 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence of SsHKT1 was 39-64% identical to other plant HKT-like sequences. A SsHKT1-specific antibody was prepared and reacted with a 63.0 kDa protein from S. salsa plasma membrane. Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis showed that SsHKT1 was mainly expressed in leaf tissues and to a lesser extent, in root tissues. Amounts of SsHKT1 transcript were developmentally controlled and significantly up-regulated by K+ deprivation and NaCl treatment. The results suggested that SsHKT1 might play an important role in ion homeostasis and salt tolerance of S. salsa.

Objective: To investigate the relation of trochlea morphology and patellofemoral alignment to prevalent radiographic patellofemoral osteoarthritis (PFOA). Design: A within-person knee-matched case-control study was performed. Participants with unilateral radiographic PFOA were selected from the Multicenter Population-based Osteoarthritis Study (MPOA) in three towns in northern China that was approved by Peking University Health Science Center Ethics Committee (2018PHB166-01). Radiographic PFOA, radiographic tibiofemoral OA, sulcus angle, patellofemoral index and patella displacement were assessed using posterio-anterior and skyline views of the knee. We classified sulcus angle, patellofemoral index and patella displacement into quarters and investigated the relation of each of these measures to prevalent radiographic PFOA. Results: Among 451 participants (mean age: 65.2 years, women: 66.8%) with unilateral radiographic PFOA, a reverse J-shaped relationship was observed between sulcus angle and prevalent radiographic PFOA (P ¼ 0.039 for quadratic term). Both higher patellofemoral index and patella displacement were associated with higher prevalent radiographic PFOA. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of prevalent radiographic PFOA in the highest quarter of patellofemoral index and patella displacement were 4.69 and 3.60 (P for trend <0.001), respectively, compared with the lowest quarter of each measurement. A similar relationship was observed between sulcus angle with either prevalent radiographic lateral or medial PFOA. Higher values of patellofemoral index and patella displacement were statistically significantly associated with higher prevalent radiographic lateral (ORs ¼ 5.07 and 4.59, respectively), but not medial PFOA (ORs ¼ 0.58 and 0.76, respectively). Conclusion: Extreme sulcus angles as well as higher values of patellofemoral index and patella displacement were associated with higher prevalent radiographic PFOA.