Project description:This study was undertaken to assess the similarities (or differences) between the well-established PPARγ agonist Rosiglitazone and Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) diclofenac, indomethacin and ibuprofen, as well as the partial agonist GQ16 at the transcriptome level. Assessment of NSAID and GQ16 activities in PPARγ-dependent 3T3-L1 cells reveals that NSAIDs and GQ16 display similar effects toward PPARγ-dependent target genes in a manner similar to that of Rosiglitazone.
Project description:Chronic inflammation plays a critical role in the initiation and development of various human illnesses. The use of steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (SAIDs) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is now much more frequent and presents a number of unwanted side effects. For example long- or short-term usage of SAIDs presents multiple negative side effects such as stomach irritation, thinning of the skin, immune defence regression, weight gain and even sometimes a cortico-dependence, and NSAIDs have been linked to a higher risk of strokes, heart attacks, and heart-related deaths. In parallel, there has been renewed interest in alternative medicines and natural therapies and thousands of potential medicinal plants, including sage and chamomile. This study assesses the gene expression responses of human mature adipopcytes (differentiated from fibroblastic pre-adipocytes [PromoCell, Germany; Catalogue #C-12730]), pre-treated with aqueous ethanol extract of sage (Salvia officinalis) or Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), following 4h or 24h treatment with IL-1B versus control conditions.
Project description:Chronic inflammation plays a critical role in the initiation and development of various human illnesses. The use of steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (SAIDs) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is now much more frequent and presents a number of unwanted side effects. For example long- or short-term usage of SAIDs presents multiple negative side effects such as stomach irritation, thinning of the skin, immune defence regression, weight gain and even sometimes a cortico-dependence, and NSAIDs have been linked to a higher risk of strokes, heart attacks, and heart-related deaths. In parallel, there has been renewed interest in alternative medicines and natural therapies and thousands of potential medicinal plants, including sage and chamomile. This study assesses the gene expression responses of human SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells, pre-treated with aqueous ethanol extracts of sage (Salvia officinalis) or Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), following 4h or 24h treatment with IL-1B versus control conditions.
Project description:We previously showed that doxycycline and carprofen , a veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, have synergistic antimicrobial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococus pseudintermedius (MRSP) carrying the tetracycline resistance determinant TetK. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of this synergy, we investigated the effects of the two drugs, individually and in combination, using a comprehensive approach including two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D DIGE).
Project description:Introgressed variants from other species can be an important source of genetic variation because they may arise rapidly, can include multiple mutations on a single haplotype, and have often been pretested by selection in the species of origin. Although introgressed alleles are generally deleterious, several studies have reported introgression as the source of adaptive alleles-including the rodenticide-resistant variant of Vkorc1 that introgressed from Mus spretus into European populations of Mus musculus domesticus. Here, we conducted bidirectional genome scans to characterize introgressed regions into one wild population of M. spretus from Spain and three wild populations of M. m. domesticus from France, Germany, and Iran. Despite the fact that these species show considerable intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation, introgression was observed in all individuals, including in the M. musculus reference genome (GRCm38). Mus spretus individuals had a greater proportion of introgression compared with M. m. domesticus, and within M. m. domesticus, the proportion of introgression decreased with geographic distance from the area of sympatry. Introgression was observed on all autosomes for both species, but not on the X-chromosome in M. m. domesticus, consistent with known X-linked hybrid sterility and inviability genes that have been mapped to the M. spretus X-chromosome. Tract lengths were generally short with a few outliers of up to 2.7 Mb. Interestingly, the longest introgressed tracts were in olfactory receptor regions, and introgressed tracts were significantly enriched for olfactory receptor genes in both species, suggesting that introgression may be a source of functional novelty even between species with high barriers to gene flow.
Project description:NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) inhibit cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes and prevent Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at preclinical stages in cognitively normal aging populations. We modeled NSAID prevention of memory impairment in AD model mice to identify novel targets of NSAID action. We found that the widely-used NSAID ibuprofen prevented early hippocampus-dependent memory deficits in APP-PS1 mice. We therefore analyzed gene expression in the hippocampus of these mice.
Project description:In mammals, retinal damage is followed by Müller glia cell activation and proliferation. While retinal gliosis persists in adult mammals after an insult or disease, some vertebrates, including zebrafish, have the capacity to regenerate. We believe we are the first group to show that gliosis is a fibrotic-like process in mammals’ eyes caused by differential activation of canonical and non-canonical TGFβ signaling pathways.
Project description:The alarming rise of antimicrobial resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis coupled with the shortage of new antibiotics has made tuberculosis (TB) control a global health priority. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit the growth of multi-drug resistant isolates of M. tuberculosis. Repurposing NSAIDs, with known clinical properties and safety records, offers a direct route to clinical trials. Therefore we investigated the novel mechanisms of anti-mycobacterial action of the NSAID, carprofen. Integrative molecular and microbiological approaches revealed that carprofen, a bactericidal drug, inhibited bacterial drug efflux mechanisms. In addition, carprofen restricted mycobacterial biofilm-like growth, highlighting the requirement of efflux-mediated communicative systems for the formation of biofilms. Transcriptome profiling revealed that carprofen likely acts by inhibiting respiration through the disruption of membrane potential, which may explain why spontaneous drug-resistant mutants could not be raised due to the pleiotropic nature of carprofen’s anti-tubercular action. This immunomodulatory drug has the potential to reverse TB antimicrobial resistance by inhibiting drug efflux pumps and biofilm formation, and paves a new chemotherapeutic path for tackling tuberculosis.
Project description:Identifying strategies to improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) remains a major clinical need. Here, we show that therapeutically targeting the COX-2/PGE2/EP2-4 pathway with widely used non-steroidal and steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs synergized with ICB in mouse cancer models. We exploited a bilateral surgery model to harness the heterogeneity in treatment outcome and distinguish responders from non-responders shortly following treatment. Deep cellular and molecular tumor profiling revealed acute IFN-γ-driven tumor remodeling in responder mice that was also associated with patient benefit to ICB. Crucially, monotherapy with COX-2 inhibitors or EP2-4 PGE2 receptor antagonists rapidly induced this response program and, in combination with ICB, increased the intratumoral accumulation of T cells with enhanced effector function. Inhibition of the COX-2/PGE2 pathway in patient-derived tumor fragments from multiple patients and cancer types revealed a similar shift in the tumor inflammatory environment to favor T cell activation. Our findings establish the COX-2/PGE2/EP2-4 axis as an independent immune checkpoint and a readily translatable strategy to switch the tumor inflammatory profile from cold to hot and enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy.