Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline drug with a wide spectrum of antineoplastic activities. However, it causes cardiac cytotoxicity, and this limits its clinical applications. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) plays a vital role in regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis. While miR-21 is preferentially expressed in adult cardiomyocytes and involved in cardiac development and heart disease, little is known regarding its biological functions in responding to DOX-induced cardiac cytotoxicity. In this study, the effects of DOX on mouse cardiac function and the expression of miR-21 were examined in both mouse heart tissues and rat H9C2 cardiomyocytes. The results showed that the cardiac functions were more aggravated in chronic DOX injury mice compared with acute DOX-injury mice; DOX treatment significantly increased miR-21 expression in both mouse heart tissue and H9C2 cells. Over-expression of miR-21 attenuated DOX-induced apoptosis in cardiamyocytes whereas knocking down its expression increased DOX-induced apoptosis. These gain- and loss- of function experiments showed that B cell translocation gene 2 (BTG2) was a target of miR-21. The expression of BTG2 was significantly decreased both in myocardium and H9C2 cells treated with DOX. The present study has revealed that miR-21 protects mouse myocardium and H9C2 cells against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity probably by targeting BTG2.

Sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response to infection, is the major cause of death in intensive care units (ICUs). The mortality rate of sepsis remains high even though the treatment and understanding of sepsis both continue to improve. Sinomenine (SIN) is a natural alkaloid extracted from Chinese medicinal plant Sinomenium acutum, and its hydrochloride salt (Sinomenine hydrochloride, SIN-HCl) is widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, its role in sepsis remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of SIN-HCl in sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) in BALB/c mice and the corresponding mechanism. SIN-HCl treatment improved the survival of BALB/c mice that were subjected to CLP and reduced multiple organ dysfunction and the release of systemic inflammatory mediators. Autophagy activities were examined using Western blotting. The results showed that CLP-induced autophagy was elevated, and SIN-HCl treatment further strengthened the autophagy activity. Autophagy blocker 3-methyladenine (3-MA) was used to investigate the mechanism of SIN-HCl in vitro. Autophagy activities were determined by examining the autophagosome formation, which was shown as microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) puncta with green immunofluorescence. SIN-HCl reduced lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory cytokine release and increased autophagy in peritoneal macrophages (PM). 3-MA significantly decreased autophagosome formation induced by LPS and SIN-HCl. The decrease of inflammatory cytokines caused by SIN-HCl was partially aggravated by 3-MA treatment. Taken together, our results indicated that SIN-HCl could improve survival, reduce organ damage, and attenuate the release of inflammatory cytokines induced by CLP, at least in part through regulating autophagy activities.

These results indicate that nucleolin is up-regulated and involved in myocardial protection of ischaemic preconditioning via a post-transcriptional control of HSPA1A expression.

Autophagy plays a protective role in endotoxemic mice. Heat shock factor 1 (HSF-1) also plays a crucial protective role in endotoxemic mice by decreasing inflammatory cytokines. The purpose of this study was to determine whether HSF-1 is involved in attenuating the release of inflammatory cytokines in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated mice and peritoneal macrophages (PMs) through regulating autophagy activity. Autophagosome formation in HSF-1(+/+) and HSF-1(-/-) mice and PMs stimulated by LPS was examined by Western blotting and immunofluorescence. Lipopolysaccharide-induced autophagy and inflammatory cytokines were examined in HSF-1(+/+) and HSF-1(-/-) PMs treated with 3-methyladenine (3-MA) or rapamycin. Results showed that LPS-induced autophagy was elevated transiently at 12 h but declined at 24 h in the livers and lungs of mice. Higher levels of inflammatory cytokines and lower autophagy activity were detected in HSF-1(-/-) mice and PMs compared with HSF-1(+/+) mice and PMs. Interestingly, LPS-induced release of inflammatory cytokines did not further increase in HSF-1(-/-) PMs treated with 3-MA but aggravated in HSF-1(+/+) PMs. Lipopolysaccharide-induced autophagy did not decrease in HSF-1(-/-) PMs treated with 3-MA but decreased in HSF-1 PMs(+/+). Taken together, our results suggested that HSF-1 attenuated the release of inflammatory cytokines induced by LPS by regulating autophagy activity.

Previous studies have shown that the tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) levels in serum and bone tissues formed in avascular necrosis of femoral head (ANFH) patients were higher than those of normal individuals, indicating TNF‐α might play a role in the pathogenesis of ANFH. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed to show the pathological changes of ANFH bone tissues. TNF‐α expression in normal and ANFH tissues was examined by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analyses. Osteoblast autophagy and apoptosis, as well as signaling pathways activation, were measured by their corresponding marker proteins. Osteoblast proliferation, autophagy, and apoptosis were evaluated using cell counting kit‐8, transmission electron microscopy, and flow cytometry. The structures of bone tissues of ANFH were obviously damaged. TNF‐α expression was significantly upregulated in ANFH bone tissues compared to normal tissues. Autophagy and apoptosis were remarkably promoted, and p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK)/nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) signaling pathways were markedly activated in ANFH. Suppression of the p38 MAPK/NF‐κB pathway significantly attenuated the TNF‐α‐induced autophagy, however, enhanced the TNF‐α‐induced apoptosis in osteoblasts. Increased TNF‐α in ANFH regulated osteoblast autophagy and apoptosis by p38 MAPK/NF‐κB signaling pathways, blocking the pathway by inhibitors exacerbated TNF‐α‐induced apoptosis through impairing autophagy flux.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the mostly deadly malignancies in the world. Nucleolin is a multifunctional protein that mainly regulates ribosome biogenesis but also has other functions including modulating the transcription of mRNAs and repressing RNA polymerase II. Nucleolin is overexpressed in various cancer cells, including NSCLC cells. It can confer resistance to apoptosis and promote cell migration and blood vessel formation by directly taking part in various tumor signal transduction pathways. The activities of nucleolin are regulated mainly by intracellular localization and post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation, glycosylation, methylation, and ADP-ribosylation. Phosphorylation of nucleolin (P-nucleolin) in NSCLC cells is still not well characterized. In the present study, the levels of nucleolin and P-nucleolin were examined in lung tissue and cells and it was demonstrated that levels of the two forms of nucleolin were significantly increased in NSCLC compared with non-cancerous tissues and cells. In addition, it was demonstrated that high expression levels of nucleolin and P-nucleolin were significantly associated with poor overall survival of NSCLC patients. Doxorubicin (DOX) is a type of anthracycline that has been used in the treatment of various types of cancer, including NSCLC. Upregulation of nucleolin through exogenous expression of nucleolin promoted A549 cell proliferation and migration, while downregulation of nucleolin through expression of small interfering RNA-nucleolin attenuated A549 cell proliferation and migration. Following stimulation with DOX, A549 cell proliferation and migration decreased and the expression of P-nucleolin also decreased. In order to investigate whether P-nucleolin is indispensable to the proliferation and migration of NSCLC cells, a plasmid encoding mutant nucleolin, in which the phosphorylation site at threonine-76 was mutated to alanine, was constructed. Compared with the A549 cells transfected with wild-type nucleolin, P-nucleolin expression and cell proliferation and migration were significantly decreased in A549 cells transfected with mutant nucleolin. These results indicate that targeting P-nucleolin may be a promising strategy for treating NSCLC patients.

Shikonin (SHI) is an anti-inflammatory agent extracted from natural herbs. It is still unknown whether SHI ameliorates lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cardiac dysfunction. This study aims to explore the protective effects of SHI on LPS-induced myocardial injury and its mechanism. The LPS-induced cardiac dysfunction mouse model was employed to investigate the protective effects of SHI. In the present study, we found that SHI treatment improved the survival rate and cardiac function and remarkably ameliorated the release of inflammatory cytokines and macrophage infiltration in heart tissue of LPS-treated mice. SHI also reduced lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and cardiac troponin (cTn) release, cell inflammation, and apoptosis in LPS plus adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-treated H9c2 cells. In addition, SHI significantly upregulated silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) expression and suppressed the upregulation of NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), cleaved caspase-1, and caspase-1 activity in heart tissues induced by LPS. Meanwhile, we got the same results in LPS plus ATP-treated H9c2 cells in vitro. Further, SIRT1 inhibitor or siRNA partially blocked SHI-mediated upregulation of SIRT1 expression and downregulation of NLRP3, cleaved caspase-1, and caspase-1 activity in heart tissues induced by LPS. Therefore, we conclude that SHI ameliorates LPS-induced cardiac dysfunction by inhibiting SIRT1-dependent activation of NLRP3 inflammasomes and might be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of LPS-induced cardiac dysfunction.

Nucleolin is a multifunctional protein and participates in many important biological processes. Our previous study found that nucleolin protects the heart against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of nucleolin in doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity. The expression pattern of nucleolin in hearts subjected to DOX injury was investigated, and we found that administration of DOX induced nucleolin expression significantly in vivo and in vitro. Gene transfection and RNA interference approaches were used in cardiomyocytes to investigate the function of nucleolin. Nucleolin overexpression protects cardiomyocytes against DOX-induced injury. Nucleolin-ablated cardiomyocytes become susceptible to the injury induced by DOX. The hearts of cardiac-myocyte-specific nucleolin transgenic mice are more resistant to DOX injury. Furthermore, nucleolin upregulates microRNA(miRNA)-21 expression in vivo and in vitro, and the miRNA-21 inhibitor negates the protective effect of nucleolin against injury induced by DOX. These results have demonstrated that nucleolin is involved in the regulation of DOX-induced cardiac injury and dysfunction via the regulation of miRNA-21 expression, and may be a novel therapeutic target for DOX-induced cardiotoxicity.