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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of sepsis and has also been observed in some patients suffering from the new coronavirus pneumonia COVID-19, which is currently a major global concern. Thymoquinone (TQ) is one of the most active ingredients in Nigella sativa seeds. It has a variety of beneficial properties including anti-inflammatory and antioxidative activities. Here, we investigated the possible protective effects of TQ against kidney damage in septic BALB/c mice. Eight-week-old male BALB/c mice were divided into four groups: control, TQ, cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), and TQ+CLP. CLP was performed after 2 weeks of TQ gavage. After 48 h, we measured the histopathological alterations in the kidney tissue and the serum levels of creatinine (CRE) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN). We also evaluated pyroptosis (NLRP3, caspase-1), apoptosis (caspase-3, caspase-8), proinflammatory (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6)-related protein and gene expression levels. Our results demonstrated that TQ inhibited CLP-induced increased serum CRE and BUN levels. It also significantly inhibited the high levels of NLRP3, caspase-1, caspase-3, caspase-8, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 induced by CLP. Furthermore, NF-κB protein level was significantly decreased in the TQ+CLP group than in the CLP group. Together, our results indicate that TQ may be a potential therapeutic agent for sepsis-induced AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging evidence indicates that resistin and fascin-1 may possess a causal role in the development of several types of cancers. However, the clinical significance of resistin expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues is unclear, and there are no reports of any correlation between resistin and fascin-1. Our analyses explored the expression of resistin in CRC tissue and analyzed the clinical and prognostic significance of the observed positive correlation between resistin and fascin-1. The rate of strongly positive resistin expression (27.5%) was significantly higher in CRC tissues than in normal colorectal tissues (5.2%). Strongly positive resistin expression is related to multiple poor prognostic factors in CRC, including depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, and tumor stage. In this study, survival was worse in CRC patients with high levels of both resistin and fascin-1 expression than in those with high levels of only one protein or normal levels of both proteins. We suggest that a combined high level of resistin and fascin-1 expression correlates reliably with survival in CRC, so it may serve as a potential therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]