Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising technology for converting organic wastes into bio-crude oil, with organic-rich post-hydrothermal liquefaction wastewater (PHWW) as by-product. In this study, zeolite adsorption and anaerobic digestion (AD) were integrated to improve the methane production and energy recovery of PHWW from Chlorella 1067. A statistical design for maximum toxicants removal by zeolite was applied before AD process. Zeolite could mitigate the inhibition associated to compounds such as ammonia, N-heterocyclic compounds, etc. in PHWW and thereby shortening the lag phase and increasing methane production by 32-117% compared with that without zeolite adsorption. Zeolite adsorption also increased energy recovery efficiency (up to 70.5%) for this integrated system. Integration of HTL and AD brought higher energetic return from feedstock via oil and biomethane production, which may offer insight into industrial application of microalgae biomass in the circular economy. In addition, carbon and nitrogen flow for the integrated process was determined.
Background: Oridonin has been demonstrated to exert strong antitumor activities in various types of human cancers. Our previous study established that oridonin induced the apoptosis of and exerted an inhibitory effect on colon cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. However, the mechanisms behind the antitumor effects of oridonin on colorectal cancer are not clearly known. This study explored whether autophagy was involved in antitumorigenesis effects caused by the usage of oridonin in colon cancer and examined whether the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 signaling pathway was involved in this process. Methods: Cell viability was determined using CCK-8 assay. The distribution of cell apoptosis was evaluated using flow cytometry. RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis were conducted to identify the key target genes and proteins involved in the AMPK/mTOR cascade. AMPK siRNA was used to disturb AMPK expression. A DLD-1 cell orthotopic transplantation tumor model was established to explore the anti-cancer effects in vivo. Results: Oridonin exhibited a suppressive effect on DLD-1 cells in a concentration-and timedependent manner. Additionally, in a dose-dependent manner, oridonin induced cell apoptosis via inducing the protein expression levels of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP and stimulated autophagy by increasing protein expression levels of Becin1, LC3-II, decreasing protein expression levels of LC3-I, p62, which were respectively attenuated and elevated by autophagy inhibitor 3-MA. Furthermore, oridonin upregulated the expression level of p-AMPK and downregulated the expression levels of p-mTOR, p-ULK1 in the DLD-1 cells in a dosedependent manner. Moreover, knockdown of AMPK by a specific siRNA reversed the expression levels of proteins involved in the AMPK/mTOR pathway, autophagy and apoptosis. In addition, outcomes from the in vivo experiments also showed that oridonin treatment significantly repressed tumorigenic growth of DLD-1 cells without any side effects, which was accompanied by the upregulation of p-AMPK, LC3-II, active caspase-3 protein expression levels and the downregulation of p-mTOR and p-ULK1 protein expression levels. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that oridonin induced apoptosis and autophagy of colon cancer DLD-1 cells via regulating the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 pathway, which indicated that oridonin may be used as a novel therapeutic intervention for patients with colorectal cancer.
This study explored the role of MTDH in regulating the sensitivity of breast cancer cell lines to gemcitabine (Gem) and the potential miRNAs targeting MTDH. The expression of MTDH in cancer tissues and cells was detected by immunohistochemical staining or qRT-PCR. The target genes for MTDH were predicted by bioinformatics and further confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay and qRT-PCR. Cancer cells were transfected with siMTDH, MTDH, miR-9-3p inhibitor, or mimics and treated by Gem, then CCK-8, colony formation assay, tube formation assay, flow cytometry, wound healing assay, and Transwell were performed to explore the effects of MTDH, miR-9-3p, and Gem on cancer cell growth, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. Expressions of VEGF, p53, cleaved caspase-3, MMP-2, MMP-9, E-Cadherin, N-Cadherin, and Vimentin were determined by Western blot. MTDH was high-expressed in cancer tissues and cells, and the cells with high-expressed MTDH were less sensitive to Gem, while silencing MTDH expression significantly promoted the effect of Gem on inducing apoptosis, inhibiting cell migration, invasion, and growth, and on regulating protein expressions of cancer cells. Moreover, miR-9-3p had a targeted binding relationship with MTDH, and overexpressed miR-9-3p greatly promoted the toxic effects of Gem on cancer cells and expressions of apoptosis-related proteins, whereas overexpressed MTDH partially reversed such effects of overexpressed miR-9-3p. The study proved that miR-9-3p regulates biological functions, drug resistance, and the growth of Gem-treated breast cancer cells through targeting MTDH.
Background: Oridonin has been demonstrated to have anticancer effect on all kinds of cancer cells and it has shown anti-tumor activity in some tumors partially via the inactivation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. The study investigated the anticancer effect of oridonin on colon carcinoma cell line COLO205 and explored underlying mechanism.Methods: Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was performed to assess cell viability. Flow cytometry was performed to analyze the apoptosis. The key target genes and proteins involved in Wnt/β-catenin pathway were detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and Western blotting. The xenograft tumor model of colon cancer COLO205 cell was introduced to detect anti-tumor effects in vivo. Transferasemediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was adopted to test the apoptotic cells in the tumor tissues.Results: Oridonin inhibited the proliferation of colon cancer COLO205 cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Oridonin induced apoptosis by increasing the cleavage of caspases in vitro.Furthermore, the expression levels of β-catenin and its downstream targets, including c-myc, cyclinD1 and survivin were significantly reduced. Nevertheless the knockdown of β-catenin by specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) could augment the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects by oridonin in COLO205 cells.Meanwhile, oridonin also increased protein expression level of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) and decreased the phosphorylation level of GSK3β. In vivo, oridonin treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth of COLO205 cell xenografts, and which was accompanied by the restrain of Wnt/β-catenin pathway.Conclusions: Our present study demonstrated that the growth inhibition and apoptosis induction in colon cancer COLO205 cells by oridonin could be partially mediated through discontinuing Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
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