Amyloid precursor protein (APP) has an important function in the generation of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In our previous study, miR‑193b was found to be downregulated in the hippocampi of 9‑month‑old APP/PS1 double‑transgenic mice using microRNA (miR) array. In the present study, bioinformatic analyses showed that miR‑193b was a miR that was predicted to potentially target the 3'‑untranslated region (UTR) of APP. Subsequently, the function of miR‑193b on APP was studied. The levels of miR‑193b, exosomal miR‑193b, Aβ, tau, p‑tau, HCY and APOE in samples from APP/PS1 double‑transgenic mice, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia of Alzheimer‑type (DAT) patients, were measured. The results indicated that overexpression of miR‑193b could repress the mRNA and protein expression of APP. The miR‑193b inhibitor oligonucleotide induced upregulation of APP. Binding sites of miR‑193b in the 3'‑UTR of APP were identified by luciferase assay. MCI and DAT patients had lower exosomal miR‑193b, but not total miR‑193b, in the blood as compared with the controls. DAT patients had lower exosomal miR‑193b levels in blood as compared with the MCI group. A decreased exosomal miR‑193b expression level was additionally observed in the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) of DAT patients. Negative correlations were found between exosomal miR‑193b and Aβ42 in the CSF of DAT patients. In conclusion, these findings showed that miR‑193b may function in the development of AD and exosomal miR‑193b has potential as a novel, non-invasive, blood‑based biomarker of MCI and DAT patients.

In addition to its demethylating function, 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR) also plays an important role in inducing cell cycle arrest, differentiation, and cell death. However, the mechanism by which 5-aza-CdR induces antineoplastic activity is not clear. In this study, we found that 5-aza-CdR at limited concentrations (0.01-5 M) induces inhibition of cell proliferation as well as increased p53/p21Waf1/Cip1 expression in A549 cells (wild-type p53) but not in H1299 (p53-null) and H719 cells (p53 mutant). The p53-dependent p21 As demethylating agents, 5-aza-cytidine and 5-aza-2Ј-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR) 1 have been extensively used for epigenetic research (1-4). Both demethylating agents are incorporated into DNA where they bind DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) in an irreversible, covalent manner, thus sequestering the enzyme and preventing maintenance of the methylation state (5-7). Consequently, silenced genes induced by hypermethylation are re-expressed after treatment with these demethylating agents.Originally, 5-aza-cytidine and 5-aza-CdR were developed as anticancer agents (5, 8) and have been shown to have significant cytotoxic and antineoplastic activities in many experimental tumors (9 -12). 5-Aza-CdR is reported to be noncarcinogenic and incorporates into DNA but not RNA or protein (13,14). 5-Aza-CdR has been found empirically to have more potent therapeutic effects than 5-aza-cytidine in cell culture and animal models of human cancers. However, 5-aza-CdR-induced cytotoxicity may not be linked to its demethylating function (3,(15)(16)(17). In addition, the therapeutic effects of 5-aza-CdR in the treatment of different human cancer cells are conflicting. 5-Aza-CdR appears to be beneficial in the treatment of human leukemias (9,18,19), myelodysplastic syndromes (20, 21), and hemoglobinopathies (22, 23). On the other hand, there has been less positive experience in the effectiveness of 5-aza-CdR for the treatment of human solid tumors (10, 24). Therefore, it is possible that one or more critical factors may be involved in regulating the cellular response to 5-aza-CdR treatment that vary in different cell types.p53 is a very important tumor suppressor gene and is reported to be abnormal in more than 50% of human cancers (25). Chemotherapeutic agents frequently act through the mechanism of DNA damage, and p53 plays an important role in the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in response to DNA damage (26). 5-Aza-CdR has also shown anticancer activity that may be related to its ability to induce DNA damage (15,27). Based on the scenario mentioned above, it is hypothesized that 5-aza-CdR may induce DNA damage, thereby activating p53, which in turn increases p21Waf1/Cip1 expression, leading to the inhibition of cell proliferation.To confirm the role of p53 in the 5-aza-CdR-induced inhibition of cell proliferation, human lung cancer cells with different p53 status were selected as the targets for this study. As an important downstream target of p53 activation, p21Waf1/Cip1 plays a critical role in inhibit...

Aging increases the risk of various diseases. The main goal of aging research is to find therapies that attenuate aging and alleviate aging-related diseases. In this study, we screened a natural product library for geroprotective compounds using Werner syndrome (WS) human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), a premature aging model that we recently established. Ten candidate compounds were identified and quercetin was investigated in detail due to its leading effects. Mechanistic studies revealed that quercetin alleviated senescence via the enhancement of cell proliferation and restoration of heterochromatin architecture in WS hMSCs. RNA-sequencing analysis revealed the transcriptional commonalities and differences in the geroprotective effects by quercetin and Vitamin C. Besides WS hMSCs, quercetin also attenuated cellular senescence in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and physiological-aging hMSCs. Taken together, our study identifies quercetin as a geroprotective agent against accelerated and natural aging in hMSCs, providing a potential therapeutic intervention for treating age-associated disorders.

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