Search

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and fatigue are two common diseases endangering human life and health that may interact and reinforce one another. Myocardial infarction survivors frequently experience fatigue, and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases that cause fatigue-induced sudden death. Sheng Mai Yin (SMY), a Chinese medicine prescription, is traditionally used for the treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and has been demonstrated to reduce fatigue and safeguard cardiac function. This study aims to investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of SMY in treating fatigue and AMI. The pharmacological mechanisms of SMY in treating fatigue and AMI were predicted by bioinformatics and network pharmacology methods. After administering SMY at high, medium and low doses, the swimming time to exhaustion, hemoglobin level, serological parameters and hypoxia tolerance time were detected in C57BL/6N mice, and the left ventricular ejection fractions (LVEF), left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS), grasp strength, cardiac histopathology, serological parameters and the expression of PINK1 and Parkin proteins were examined in Wistar rats. 371 core targets for SMY and 282 disease targets for fatigue and AMI were obtained using bioinformatics and network pharmacology methods. Enrichment analysis of target genes revealed that SMY might interfere with fatigue and AMI through biological processes such as mitochondrial autophagy, apoptosis, and oxidative stress. For in vivo experiments, SMY showed significant anti-fatigue and hypoxia tolerance effects in mice; It also improved the cardiac function and grasp strength, decreased their cardiac index, myocardial injury and fibrosis degree, and induced serological parameters levels and the expression of PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1) and Parkin proteins in myocardium, suggesting that SMY may exert cardioprotective effects in a joint rat model of fatigue and AMI by inhibiting excessive mitochondrial autophagy. This study revealed the anti-fatigue, anti-hypoxia and cardioprotective effects of SMY in a joint model of fatigue-AMI, and the pharmacological mechanism may be related to the inhibition of mitochondrial autophagy in cardiomyocytes through the PINK1/Parkin pathway. The discoveries may provide new ideas for the mechanism study of traditional Chinese medicine, especially complex prescriptions, in treating fatigue and AMI. [Display omitted] • Fatigue and acute myocardial infarction may be related to apoptotic process. • Sheng Mai Yin reduced fatigue, hypoxia and heart damage in mice and rats. • Sheng Mai Yin may suppress PINK1 and Parkin expression in the mitochondrial autophagy of myocardium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenza A viruses can cause localized outbreaks and worldwide pandemics, owing to their high transmissibility and wide host range. As such, they are among the major diseases that cause human death. However, the molecular changes induced by influenza A virus infection in lung tissue are not entirely clear. Changes in microRNA (miRNA) expression occur in many pathological and physiological processes, and influenza A virus infection has been shown to alter miRNA expression in cultured cells and animal models. In this study, we mined key miRNAs closely related to influenza A virus infection and explored cellular regulatory mechanisms against influenza A virus infection, by building networks among miRNAs and genes, gene ontologies (GOs), and pathways. In this study, miRNAs and mRNAs induced by H1N1 influenza virus infection were measured by gene chips, and we found that 82 miRNAs and 3371 mRNAs were differentially expressed. The 82 miRNAs were further analyzed with the series test of cluster (STC) analysis. Three of the 16 cluster profiles identified by STC, which include 46 miRNAs in the three profiles, changed significantly. Using potential target genes of the 46 miRNAs, we looked for intersections of these genes with 3371 differentially expressed mRNAs; 719 intersection genes were identified. Based on the GO or KEGG databases, we attained GOs or pathways for all of the above intersection genes. Fisher's and χ test were used to calculate p value and false discovery rate (FDR), and according to the standard of p < 0.001, 241 GOs and 76 pathways were filtered. Based on these data, miRNA-gene, miRNA-GO, and miRNA-pathway networks were built. We then extracted three classes of GOs (related to inflammatory and immune response, cell cycle, proliferation and apoptosis, and signal transduction) to build three subgraphs, and pathways strictly related with H1N1 influenza virus infection were filtered to extract a subgraph of the miRNA-pathway network. Last, according to the pathway analysis and miRNA-pathway network analysis, 17 miRNAs were found to be associated with the 'influenza A' pathway. This study provides the most complete miRNAome profiles, and the most detailed miRNA regulatory networks to date, and is the first to report the most important 17 miRNAs closely related with the pathway of influenza A. These results are a prelude to advancements in mouse H1N1 influenza virus infection biology and the use of mice as a model for human H1N1 influenza virus infection studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]