It is known that a high-cholesterol diet induces oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and beta-amyloid (Abeta) accumulation in mouse brain, resulting in neurodegenerative changes. Quercetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, has been reported to possess numerous biological activities beneficial to health. Our previous studies have demonstrated that quercetin protects mouse brain against D-galactose-induced oxidative damage. Against this background, we evaluated the effect of quercetin on high-cholesterol-induced neurotoxicity in old mice and explored its potential mechanism. Our results showed that oral administration of quercetin significantly improved the behavioural performance of high-cholesterol-fed old mice in both a step-through test and the Morris water maze task. This is at least in part caused by decreasing ROS and protein carbonyl levels and restoring Cu--Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu, Zn-SOD) activity. Furthermore, quercetin also significantly activated the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) via down-regulation of protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C), which reduced the integral optical density (IOD) of activated microglia cells and CD11b expression, down-regulated iNOS and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression, and decreased IL-1beta, IL-6, and TNF-alpha expression in the brains of high-cholesterol-fed old mice through the suppression of NF-kappaB p65 nuclear translocation. Moreover, AMPK activation significantly increased 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) phosphorylation and reduced fatty acid synthase (FAS) expression in the brains of high-cholesterol-fed old mice, which reduced cholesterol levels, down-regulated cholesterol 24-hydroxylase (CYP46A1) and beta-amyloid converting enzyme 1 (BACE1) expression, decreased eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2alpha (eIF2alpha) phosphorylation, and lowered Abeta deposits. However, the neuroprotective effect of quercetin was weakened by intraperitoneal injection of compound C, an AMPK inhibitor. These results suggest that AMPK activated by quercetin may be a potential target to enhance the resistance of neurons to age-related diseases.

Recent findings suggest that neurotoxicity is the mechanism underlying the induction of neuronal insulin resistance by a high cholesterol diet. Troxerutin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, has been reported to possess biological activity beneficial to human health. Our recent studies have demonstrated that troxerutin attenuates cognitive impairment and oxidative stress induced by D-galactose in mouse brain through decreasing advanced glycation end products, reactive oxygen species and protein carbonyl levels and enhancing phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt activation. In this study, we evaluated the effect of troxerutin on cognitive impairment induced by brain insulin resistance in mice fed a high-cholesterol diet, and explored its potential mechanism. Our results showed that oral administration of troxerutin to these mice significantly improved behavioural performance in a step-through passive avoidance task and a Morris water maze task, at least in part, by decreasing the levels of reactive oxygen species, protein carbonyl and advanced glycation end products and blocking endoplasmic reticulum stress via reduced phosphorylation of the pancreatic endoplasmic reticulum-resident kinase and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α. Furthermore, troxerutin significantly inhibited the activation of c-jun N-terminal kinase 1 and IκB kinase β/nuclear factor-κB induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress and enhanced insulin signalling pathway, which prevented obesity, restored normal levels of blood glucose, fatty acids and cholesterol and increased the phosphorylation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein and the expression levels of c-fos in the hippocampus. Moreover, troxerutin significantly inhibited endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced apoptosis and decreased the activation of caspase-12 and caspase-3, and reduced the mean optical density of the terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin nick end label-positive cells in the hippocampus. However, intra-cerebroventricular infusion of PI-103, a specific phosphoinositide 3-kinase 110α inhibitor, significantly inhibited the expression levels of phosphoinositide 3-kinase 110α and phosphoinositide 3-kinase downstream signalling in the hippocampus of mice co-treated with high cholesterol and troxerutin and vehicle control mice. These results suggest that troxerutin could be recommended as a possible candidate for the prevention and therapy of cognitive deficits in type 2 diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer's disease.

Background Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are a small subset of cells characterized by unlimited self-renewal, cell differentiation, and uncontrollable cellular growth. LCSCs are also resistant to conventional therapies and are thus believed to be held responsible for causing treatment failure of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It has been recently found that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important regulators in HCC. This present study aims to explore the underlying mechanism of how lncRNA DLX6-AS1 influences the development of LCSCs and HCC. Methods A microarray-based analysis was performed to initially screen differentially expressed lncRNAs associated with HCC. We then analyzed the lncRNA DLX6-AS1 levels as well as CADM1 promoter methylation. The mRNA and protein expression of CADM1, STAT3, CD133, CD13, OCT-4, SOX2, and Nanog were then detected. We quantified our results by evaluating the spheroid formation, proliferation, and tumor formation abilities, as well as the proportion of tumor stem cells, and the recruitment of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) in LCSCs when lncRNA DLX6-AS1 was either overexpressed or silenced. Results LncRNA DLX6-AS1 was upregulated in HCC. The silencing of lncRNA DLX6-AS1 was shown to reduce and inhibit spheroid formation, colony formation, proliferation, and tumor formation abilities, as well as attenuate CD133, CD13, OCT-4, SOX2, and Nanog expression in LCSCs. Furthermore, downregulation of lncRNA DLX6-AS1 contributed to a reduction in CADM1 promoter methylation via suppression of DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b in LCSCs and inactivating the STAT3 signaling pathway. Conclusion This study demonstrated that down-regulated lncRNA DLX6-AS1 may inhibit the stem cell properties of LCSCs through upregulation of CADM1 by suppressing the methylation of the CADM1 promoter and inactivation of the STAT3 signaling pathway. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-019-1239-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Lung cancer is the main cause of cancer‐related death, and the proportion of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) on lung cancer is 85%, while more than 80% lung cancer patients are diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this study, we aimed to explore the potential mechanism of COPD induced NSCLC. Luciferase assay and reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) were conducted to study the regulatory relationship between P53 and microRNA‐675 (miR‐675). Real‐time PCR, Western‐blot analysis, and MTT assay were performed to explore the impact of H19 and miR‐675 in the signaling pathway involved in COPD induced NSCLC. In NSCLC patients with COPD, H19 and miR‐675 levels were strikingly upregulated while P53 level was significantly downregulated. P53 was identified as a target gene of miR‐675, and H19 remarkably upregulated miR‐675, while H19 siRNA notably inhibited miR‐675. In addition, miR‐675 and H19 dramatically suppressed the expression of P53 and Bax while inducing the expression of Bcl‐2. Finally, H19 and miR‐675 induced proliferation of A549 and MRC‐5 cells. These finding indicated that COPD (hypoxia)‐induced H19 promoted expression of miR‐675 associated with NSCLC though target apoptosis‐related protein P53, BAX, and Bcl‐2.

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