Nanoparticles are useful for increasing drug stability, solubility, and availability. The small molecule baicalein inhibits fibrillation, and detoxifies aggregates of α‐synuclein (αSN) associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), but it suffers from instability, low solubility and consequent low availability. Here it is demonstrated that incorporation of baicalein into zwitterionic nanoliposomes (NLP‐Ba) addresses these problems. NLP‐Ba inhibits αSN fibril initiation, elongation, secondary nucleation, and also depolymerizes mature fibrils more effectively than free baicalein and prevents soluble αSN aggregates from seeding new fibrils. Importantly, NLP‐Ba perturbs oligomers’ capacity to permeabilize the membrane. The interaction between NLP‐Ba and αSN is confirmed by different biophysical techniques. This nanosystem crosses the blood‐brain barrier in vitro and is effective against rotenone neurotoxicity in vivo. The effect of NLP‐Ba on αSN fibrillation/cytotoxicity is attributed to a combination of free baicalein and empty NLPs. The results indicate a neuroprotective role for NLP‐Ba in decreasing αSN pathogenicity in PD and highlight the use of nanoliposomes to mobilize poorly soluble hydrophobic drugs.

Natural dietary ingredients like flavonoids are important for body improvement against diseases. The flavonol rutin is widely found in fruits and vegetables and shows significant anticancer properties. However, the underlined signaling pathways have not been elucidated yet. In this study, the impacts of various doses of rutin (400–700 mM/ml) have been examined on human colon cancer SW480 cells metabolism, cell cycle, and apoptosis. The transcriptome was analyzed by bioinformatics tools and the interactions between rutin modulated microRNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and transcription factors (TFs) were built, filtered and enriched. A dose of 600 mM of rutin significantly decreased cells metabolic activity, halved the population and arrested the cell cycle at the sub‐G1 phase. The enrichment analysis of miRNAs‐lncRNAs‐mRNAs‐TFs network showed that these effects were mediated through alteration of glucose, lipid, and protein metabolism, modulating endoplasmic reticulum stress responses, negative regulation of cell cycle process, and inducing the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathways. Additionally, the key parent nodes of each annotation were illustrated. These findings create a detailed image of rutin underlying intracellular signaling pathways in CRC and also help us to better understand the role of dietary natural compounds in cancer treatment.

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders with no precise etiology. Multiple lines of evidence support that environmental factors, either neurotoxins or neuroinflammation, can induce Parkinsonism. In this study, we purified an active compound, neobaicalein (Skullcapflavone II), from the roots of Scutellaria pinnatifida (S. pinnatifida). Neobaicalein not only had protective impacts on rotenone-induced neurotoxicity but in glial cultures, it dampened the inflammatory response when stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Neobaicalein had high antioxidant activity without any obvious toxicity. In addition, it could raise the cell viability, decrease early apoptosis, reduce the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and keep the neurite's length normal in the treated SH-SY5Y cells. Pathway enrichment analysis (PEA) and target prediction provided insights into the PD related genes, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and the key proteins enriched in the signaling pathways. Furthermore, docking simulation (DS) on the proteins of the PD-PPI network revealed that neobaicalein might interact with the key proteins involved in PD pathology, including MAPK14, MAPK8, and CASP3. It also blocks the destructive processes, such as cell death, inflammation, and oxidative stress pathways. Our results demonstrate that neobaicalein alleviates pathological effects of factors related to PD, and may provide new insight into PD therapy.

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This result suggests polymorphic GT repeat of PIK3CA gene may be a potential predictive marker of colorectal cancer risk in Iranian population.