Project description:ALS is a complex neurodegenerative disease influenced by genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors, resulting in dysfunction in cellular and molecular pathways. The limited efficacy of current treatments highlights the need for combination therapies targeting multiple aspects of the disease. Niclosamide, an anthelminthic drug listed as an essential medicine, has been repurposed in clinical trials due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties. Niclosamide can inhibit various molecular pathways (such as STAT3 and mTOR) that are dysregulated in ALS, suggesting its potential to disrupt these altered mechanisms associated with the pathology. Our recent findings have demonstrated that niclosamide can effectively inhibit inflammatory and fibrotic molecular pathways in ALS models. We administered niclosamide intraperitoneally to two transgenic murine models, FUS and SOD1-G93A mice, which replicate key pathologies and biological processes of ALS. The treatment was initiated at the onset of symptoms, and we assessed the progression of the disease by neurological scores, rotarod and grip tests, as well as monitoring survival. Additionally, we examined the effects of the treatment on spinal cord and muscle degeneration in the treated mice. In both models, the administration of niclosamide resulted in a slowdown of disease progression, an increase in survival rates, and an improvement in tissue pathology. This was characterized by a reduction in gliosis, motor neuron loss, muscle atrophy, and inflammatory markers. Based on these results, our findings demonstrate that niclosamide can impact multiple pathways involved in ALS. This multi-targeted approach leads to a slowdown in the progression of the disease, thereby positioning niclosamide as a promising candidate for repurposing in the treatment of ALS.
Project description:Because niclosamide inhibits growth and progression of endometriotic lesions, we performed RNA-seq in order to identify genes whose expression is regulated by niclosamide in endometriotic lesions. Our results shown that niclosamide modulates several genes related to cell signaling, extracellular matrix, and inflammatory signaling.
Project description:Neuroblastoma is a pediatric tumor of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system with diverse clinical behaviors. Even with multimodal therapies, high-risk neuroblastoma has an unfavorable outcome irrespective of MYCN amplification, a well-established oncogenic driver in neuroblastoma pathogenesis, and its genetic heterogeneity has largely impeded efforts to correlate molecular targets with biological consequences for more effective treatment strategies. Here, using a gene expression-based approach, we identified the FDA-approved anthelmintic niclosamide as a potential anti-neuroblastoma drug. By combining the gene expression signature associated with high-risk neuroblastoma and the recurrent drug−transcript relationships inferred from up to one million perturbational gene expression profiles, our algorithm predicted effective therapeutic candidates by evaluating the extent to which a given compound or their combinations could ‘reverse’ the high-risk signature. Furthermore, we performed quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to validate top five candidate reverse genes which are involved in DNA replication, including cyclin A2 (CCNA2), minichromosome maintenance 10 replication initiation factor (MCM10), ERCC excision repair 6 like, spindle assembly checkpoint helicase (ERCC6L), kinesin family member 20A (KIF20A), and RuvB like AAA ATPase 1 (RUVBL1). Indeed, those five genes were downregulated in niclosamide-treated cells, indicating niclosamide suppressed DNA replication and then inhibited cell proliferation. Using cell proliferation and clonogenic assays as well as flow cytometry, we determined the cytotoxic effects of niclosamide in MYCN-amplified SK-N-DZ and non-amplified SK-N-AS cells. The results showed that niclosamide could effectively reduce not only cell proliferation and colony formation but also trigger cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Moreover, we conducted human tumor xenografts in a nude mice model to evaluate the in vivo efficacy of niclosamide and found that it significantly suppressed tumor growth and prolonged survival rate, but doesn’t cause organ damage and change body weight. To explore the molecular mechanism of niclosamide, stable-isotope dimethyl labeling strategy for quantitative proteomics was performed on both cell-based or xenograft-based MYCN-amplified SK-N-DZ and MYCN-nonamplified SK-N-AS models. We confirmed niclosamide not only mediated the function of mitochondrial electron transport chain but also the other functions in high risk neuroblastoma cell lines and xenografts. The results suggest that our developed expression-based strategy is useful for drug discovery and provides the possibility of repurposing the anthelminthic drug niclosamide for treating high-risk neuroblastoma therapy.
Project description:Endometriosis is one of the most common causes of chronic pelvic pain and infertility that affects 10% of women of reproductive age. It is currently defined as the presence of endometrial epithelial and stromal cells at ectopic sites; however, advances in endometriosis research have some authors believing that endometriosis should be re-defined as “a fibrotic condition in which endometrial stroma and epithelium can be identified”. microRNAs (miRNAs) are regulatory molecules that potentially play a role in endometriotic lesion development. There is evidence that suggests that miRNAs, including microRNA-21 (miR-21), participate in fibrotic processes in different organs, including the heart, kidney, liver and lungs. The objective of this study was to understand the role of miR-21 and the mechanisms that can contribute to the development of fibrosis by determining how IL-6 regulates miR-21 expression and how this miRNA regulates the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling pathway to promote fibrosis. We investigated the expression of miR-21 in the baboon and mouse model of endometriosis and its correlation with fibrosis. We demonstrated that inflammation and fibrosis are present at a very early stage of endometriosis and that the inflammatory environment in the peritoneal cavity, which includes interleukin 6 (IL-6), can regulate the expression of miR-21 in vitro and in vivo.
2024-09-13 | GSE274922 | GEO
Project description:Multi-omic profiling for intra-abdominal hypertension
Project description:Accumulating evidences suggest that various epigenetic aberrations play definite roles in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. The aim of this study is to identify 1) the panel of aberrantly expressed genes that are epigenetically suppressed by histone acetylation in endometriosis; 2) the roles of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) alpha, one of the candidate molecules whose expression was epigenetically repressed in endometriotic cyst stromal cells (ECSCs), in the pathogenesis of endometriosis; and 3) the efficacy of the histone deacetylase inhibitors for the treatment of endometriosis. Subconfluent ECSCs cultured in 10-cm dish were further incubated for 72 h with or without VPA (8 mM) and/or 5aza. Total RNA from untreated ECSCs (n=4), VPA-treated ECSCs (n=4), 5aza-treated ECSCs (n=4), and VPA- and 5aza-treated ECSCs (n=4) was extracted and subjected to gene expression microarray analysis.
Project description:The gene expression profile in treated CP70 side population spheroid cells (CP70sps cells) was analyzed to investigate the effect of niclosamide inhibition on ovarian tumor-initiating cells. CP70sps cells are isolated and characterized as one kind of ovarian tumor-initiating cells, and they show stemness properties and drug resistance capacity. According gene expression profiles and mechanistic analysis, all evidences revealed niclosamide disrupted multiple metabolic pathways affecting biogenetics, biogenesis and redox regulation. These studies support niclosamide as a promising therapeutic agent for ovarian cancer. CP70sps cells were treated with niclosamide for 0, 2, 4 and 6 hours respectively, and then cells were harvested and analyzed their gene expression profiles.
Project description:Accumulating evidences suggest that various epigenetic aberrations play definite roles in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. The aim of this study is to identify 1) the panel of aberrantly expressed genes that are epigenetically suppressed by histone acetylation in endometriosis; 2) the roles of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) alpha, one of the candidate molecules whose expression was epigenetically repressed in endometriotic cyst stromal cells (ECSCs), in the pathogenesis of endometriosis; and 3) the efficacy of the histone deacetylase inhibitors for the treatment of endometriosis.