Project description:The goals of this study is to identify the differential expressed genes in heart of C57BL/6 mice with or without LPS treatment, and compare the differential expressed genes in the heart of LPS injection C57BL/6 mice after Xijiao Dihuang decoction(XJDHT) treatment. Briefly, the mice were randomly divided into 3 groups: control, LPS and LPS + XJDHT groups (n=4 for each group). Mice in Control and LPS groups were intraperitoneal injection with saline and 10mg/kg of LPS respectively, and orally administrated with saline; the mice in LPS + XJDHT groups were intraperitoneal injection with LPS (10 mg/kg) and orally administrated with 50 mg/kg /day of XJDHT for total 3 days. Then the heart were used to identify differentially expressed genes among different groups.
Project description:Background: Sepsis involves aberrant immune responses to infection, but the exact nature of this immune dysfunction remains poorly defined. Bacterial endotoxins like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are potent inducers of inflammation, which has been associated with the pathophysiology of sepsis, but repeated exposure can also induce a suppressive effect known as endotoxin tolerance or cellular reprogramming. It has been proposed that endotoxin tolerance might be associated with the immunosuppressive state that was primarily observed during late-stage sepsis. However, this relationship remains poorly characterised. Here we clarify the underlying mechanisms and timing of immune dysfunction in sepsis. Methods: We defined a gene expression signature characteristic of endotoxin tolerance. Gene-set test approaches were used to correlate this signature with early sepsis, both newly and retrospectively analysing microarrays from 593 patients in 11 cohorts. Then we recruited a unique cohort of possible sepsis patients at first clinical presentation in an independent blinded controlled observational study to determine whether this signature was associated with the development of confirmed sepsis and organ dysfunction. Findings: All sepsis patients presented an expression profile strongly associated with the endotoxin tolerance signature (p < 0.01; AUC 96.1%). Importantly, this signature further differentiated between suspected sepsis patients who did, or did not, go on to develop confirmed sepsis, and predicted the development of organ dysfunction. Interpretation: Our data support an updated model of sepsis pathogenesis in which endotoxin tolerance-mediated immune dysfunction (cellular reprogramming) is present throughout the clinical course of disease and related to disease severity. Thus endotoxin tolerance might offer new insights guiding the development of new therapies and diagnostics for early sepsis. For the RNA-Seq study reported here, 73 patients were recruited with deferred consent at the time of first examination in an emergency ward based on the opinion of physicians that there was a potential for the patient's condition to develop into sepsis. These were retrospectively divided into groups based on clinical features and compared to 11 non-urgent surgical controls.
Project description:Despite decades of research, sepsis remains one of the most urgent unmet medical needs. Clinical trials in sepsis have mainly focused on targeting the inflammatory pathway, however, recent data indicate that sepsis should also be seen as a metabolic disease. Targeting metabolic dysregulations that take place in sepsis might uncover novel therapeutic opportunities to treat human sepsis patients. The role of PPARα in liver dysfunction during sepsis has recently been described, and restoring PPARα signaling proves to be successful in murine sepsis. To find out whether this therapy might also be helpful in human sepsis patients, we analyzed metabolic perturbations in liver of a porcine fecal peritonitis model. Resuscitation with fluids, antimicrobial therapy and abdominal drainage were applied to the pigs in order to mimic human clinical care. By using RNA-seq, we detected problems with PPARα signaling in the livers of septic pigs and reduced PPARα levels correlated well with disease severity. As PPARα regulates the expression of many genes involved in FA oxidation, reduced expression of these target genes concomitant with increased FFAs in plasma and ectopic lipid deposition in the liver was observed. The results obtained in pigs are in agreement with earlier observations in mice and support the potential of targeting defective PPARα signaling in the clinic.
Project description:Background: Sepsis involves aberrant immune responses to infection, but the exact nature of this immune dysfunction remains poorly defined. Bacterial endotoxins like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are potent inducers of inflammation, which has been associated with the pathophysiology of sepsis, but repeated exposure can also induce a suppressive effect known as endotoxin tolerance or cellular reprogramming. It has been proposed that endotoxin tolerance might be associated with the immunosuppressive state that was primarily observed during late-stage sepsis. However, this relationship remains poorly characterised. Here we clarify the underlying mechanisms and timing of immune dysfunction in sepsis. Methods: We defined a gene expression signature characteristic of endotoxin tolerance. Gene-set test approaches were used to correlate this signature with early sepsis, both newly and retrospectively analysing microarrays from 593 patients in 11 cohorts. Then we recruited a unique cohort of possible sepsis patients at first clinical presentation in an independent blinded controlled observational study to determine whether this signature was associated with the development of confirmed sepsis and organ dysfunction. Findings: All sepsis patients presented an expression profile strongly associated with the endotoxin tolerance signature (p < 0.01; AUC 96.1%). Importantly, this signature further differentiated between suspected sepsis patients who did, or did not, go on to develop confirmed sepsis, and predicted the development of organ dysfunction. Interpretation: Our data support an updated model of sepsis pathogenesis in which endotoxin tolerance-mediated immune dysfunction (cellular reprogramming) is present throughout the clinical course of disease and related to disease severity. Thus endotoxin tolerance might offer new insights guiding the development of new therapies and diagnostics for early sepsis.
Project description:we conducted integrative multiple levels of omics data including transcriptome, phosphoproteome, proteome and metabolome in different time-course of sepsis-associated liver dysfunction (SALD). This is the first trial to suggest the statistical pathway of integrative multi-omics data in sepsis. Given the increasing number of studies collecting multi-omics data but limited overview of the methodological framework for integrative analyses (Liu, Ding et al. 2013, Petersen, Zeilinger et al. 2014, Shah, Bonder et al. 2015), integrative approach in sepsis with liver dysfunction in this study will provide novel insights into the development of sepsis and ultimately offer new tools for overcoming the present diagnostic limitation. Therefore, a combined multi-omics dataset will give better accessibility of adoption in disease, and insight to identify the promising candidates for therapeutic strategies.
Project description:Influenza A viruses (IAVs), particularly H1N1, H5N1 and H7N9, pose a substantial threat to public health worldwide. Here, we report that MIR2911, a honeysuckle (HS)-encoded atypical microRNA, directly targets IAVs with a broad spectrum. MIR2911 is highly stable in HS decoction, and continuous drinking or gavage feeding of HS decoction leads to a significant elevation of the MIR2911 level in mouse peripheral blood and lung. Bioinformatics prediction and a luciferase reporter assay showed that MIR2911 could target various IAVs, including H1N1, H5N1 and H7N9. Synthetic MIR2911 significantly inhibited H1N1-encoded PB2 and NS1 protein expression but did not affect mutants in which the MIR2911-binding nucleotide sequences were altered. Synthetic MIR2911, extracted RNA from HS decoction and HS decoction all significantly inhibited H1N1 viral replication and improved viral infection-induced mouse weight loss but did not affect infection with a mutant virus in which the MIR2911-binding nucleotide sequences of PB2 and NS1 were altered. Importantly, the inhibitory effect of HS decoction on viral replication was abolished by an anti-MIR2911 antagomir, indicating that the physiological concentration of MIR2911 in HS decoction could directly and sufficiently suppress H1N1 viral replication. MIR2911 also inhibited H5N1 and H7N9 viral replication in vitro and in vivo. Strikingly, administration of MIR2911 or HS decoction both dramatically reduced mouse mortality caused by H5N1 infection. Our results demonstrate that MIR2911 is the first active component identified in Traditional Chinese Medicine to directly target various IAVs and may represent a novel type of natural product that effectively suppresses viral infection. Screening and profiling of known plant microRNA in HS and HS decoction
Project description:Despite intensive research and constant medical progress, sepsis remains one of the most urgent unmet medical needs of today. Most studies have been focused on the inflammatory component of the disease, however, recent advances support the notion that sepsis is accompanied by extensive metabolic perturbations. During times of limited caloric intake and high energy needs, the liver acts as the central metabolic hub in which PPARa is crucial to coordinate the breakdown of fatty acids. The role of hepatic PPARa in liver dysfunction during sepsis has hardly been explored. We demonstrate that sepsis leads to a starvation response that is hindered by the rapid decline of hepatic PPARa levels, causing excess free fatty acids, leading to lipotoxicity, and glycerol. In addition, treatment of mice with the PPARa agonist pemafibrate protects against bacterial sepsis by improving hepatic PPARa function, reducing lipotoxicity and tissue damage. Since lipolysis is also increased in sepsis patients and pemafibrate protects after the onset of sepsis, these findings may point towards new therapeutic leads in sepsis.
Project description:<h4><strong>INTRODUCTION:</strong> Sepsis is intricately linked to intestinal damage and barrier dysfunction. At present times, there is a growing interest in a metabolite-based therapy for multiple diseases.</h4><p><strong>METHODS:</strong> Serum samples from septic patients and healthy individuals were collected and their metabonomics profiling assessed using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-TOFMS). The eXtreme Gradient Boosting algorithms (XGBOOST) method was used to screen essential metabolites associated with sepsis, and five machine learning models, including Logistic Regression, XGBoost, GaussianNB(GNB), upport vector machines(SVM) and RandomForest were constructed to distinguish sepsis including a training set (75%) and validation set(25%). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and Brier scores were used to compare the prediction performances of different models. Pearson analysis was used to analysis the relationship between the metabolites and the severity of sepsis. Both cellular and animal models were used to HYPERLINK 'javascript:;' assess the function of the metabolites.</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The occurrence of sepsis involve metabolite dysregulation. The metabolites mannose-6-phosphate and sphinganine as the optimal sepsis-related variables screened by XGBOOST algorithm. The XGBoost model (AUROC=0.956) has the most stable performance to establish diagnostic model among the five machine learning methods. The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) package was used to interpret the XGBOOST model. Pearson analysis reinforced the expression of Sphinganine, Mannose 6-phosphate were positively associated with the APACHE-II, PCT, WBC, CRP and IL-6. We also demonstrated that sphinganine strongly diminished the LDH content in LPS-treated Caco-2 cells. In addition, using both <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in vivo</em> examination, we revealed that sphinganine strongly protects against sepsis-induced intestinal barrier injury.</p><p><strong>DISCUSSION:</strong> These findings highlighted the potential diagnostic value of the ML, and also provided new insight into enhanced therapy and/or preventative measures against sepsis.</p>