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• This study firstly proved that miR-124-3p targeting PDE4B had an anti-inflammation protective effect on LPS-induced ALI by inhibiting TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. • This study provides novel insights into miR-124-3p-directed therapeutic strategies for ARDS patients. • This study provides novel insights that miR-124-3p could be a novel, promising and specific method to inhibit PDE4B. • The potential therapeutic effect of miR-124-3p will need to be evaluated based on further clinical experiments. A large number of studies have found that microRNAs (miRNAs) and phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) are crucial regulators of inflammatory responses in acute lung injury (ALI). This study will explore the protective effect of miR-124-3p on ALI and its related mechanism. The ALI mouse model was established by intratracheal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and evaluated by haematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, lung injury score, inflammation factors, polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) count, total protein and lung wet weight/dry weight (W/D) ratio. MiR-124-3p was overexpressed in vivo by intratracheal administration of miR-agomir, and PDE4B was expressed at low level in vivo by intratracheal administration of a PDE4B inhibitor. The mRNA expression level was detected by qRT–PCR, and the protein expression level was detected by Western blot. The relationship between miR-124-3p and PDE4B was detected by dual-luciferase activity assay. We found that miR-124-3p was downregulated in LPS-induced ALI. Overexpression of miR-124-3p alleviated lung injury by inhibiting the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway. Furthermore, we confirmed that miR-124-3p suppressed the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway by directly targeting PDE4B. miR-124-3p targeting PDE4B had a protective effect on LPS-induced ALI by inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Betulinic acid (BA), a natural pentacyclic triterpenoid, was isolated from sour jujube fruits for the first time. An inclusion complex comprising BA and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was formed to improve the dissolution of BA, but little is known about its anticancer effect. In this study, the anti-proliferative and apoptosis mechanisms of BA–β-CD on human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were further investigated. Experimental results confirmed that the complexation model inhibited the growth of MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner, arrested cell cycle in the G2/M phase and induced apoptosis via the mitochondria transduction pathway. Gene and protein analyses showed that the complexation model significantly inhibited Bcl-2 expression and promoted Bax expression, causing caspase-3 and caspase-9 cascade activation. These findings corroborated evidence on microencapsulated BA as an apoptosis inducer in MCF-7 cells. Thus, sour jujube fruits may have potential use as a breast cancer chemotherapeutic agent. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Glycyrrhizic acid, the main active ingredient of licorice, has good antibacterial, anti-tumor, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, and immunostimulatory activities. However, the content of glycyrrhizic acid fluctuates greatly in different licorice cultivars, and production depends on plant sources, which greatly limits its development and applications. Therefore, increasing glycyrrhizic acid content has become a research priority. In recent years, regulation of the glycyrrhizic acid biosynthesis pathway has been analyzed, the downstream synthesis pathway in licorice has been fully investigated, some key genes have been cloned, polymorphisms have been studied, and the content of glycyrrhizic acid was shown to be regulated by environmental stimuli. This work has provided a basis for studying the regulation mechanism of the glycyrrhizic acid synthesis pathway. This review summarizes and discusses relevant research to provide a current understanding of the glycyrrhizic acid synthesis pathway and its regulation in licorice. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]