Project description:Numerous studies report active pharmaceutical compounds detected in both wastewater effluent and surface waters. Exposure to statin drugs in general, and atorvastatin in particular, is likely to be a concern. We hypothesized that chronic exposure to low concentrations of atorvastatin in water would result in an adverse effect on production of steroids regulating growth and development of the model amphibian Xenopus laevis. To assess the potential for impacts we used three experimental assays. The FETAX assay was used to evaluate the effects of a range of doses of atorvastatin on developing embryos. A 60 day metamorphosis assay assessed the effects of aqueous atorvastatin exposure at environmentally concentrations on metamorphosing tadpoles. A 60 day chronic flow-through exposure evaluated the effects of chronic low concentrations of atorvastatin on adults. The data from the FETAX assay confirmed uptake, activity, and effect of atorvastatin in X. laevis tadpoles. The results of the 60-day flow-through exposure on metamorphosing tadpoles showed significant evidence of altered cholesterol biosynthesis. The dose-dependent increase in cyp19a1 expression also indicated that the steroidogenesis pathway was affected. The RNAseq analysis confirmed that exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of atorvastatin does cause significant alterations to global transcriptional profiles in a manner consistent with dysregulation of the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway, both through the downregulation of many genes involved in that pathway, but also in the impacts to other, related pathways. The qPCR data for both adult males and adult females indicated only slight changes in expression with the exception that hmgcr was significantly downregulated in males, and cyp3a4 expression was significantly downregulated in females. The data we present here indicated that chronic exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of atorvastatin does have the potential to impact early life stage frogs, particularly by altering expression of genes involved in critical molecular pathways.
Project description:This randomized phase II trial is studying atorvastatin calcium to see how well it works compared to oligofructose-enriched inulin, sulindac, or a placebo in preventing cancer in patients at increased risk of developing colorectal neoplasia. Chemoprevention is the use of certain drugs or substances to keep cancer from forming, growing, or coming back. The use of atorvastatin calcium, oligofructose-enriched inulin, or sulindac may stop cancer from forming in patients at increased risk of colorectal neoplasia. It is not yet known whether atorvastatin calcium, oligofructose-enriched inulin, or sulindac are more effective than a placebo in preventing cancer in patients at increased risk of developing colorectal neoplasia.
Project description:Abstract: Patients with metabolic syndrome are often prescribed statins to prevent development of 17 cardiovascular disease. Conversely, data on their effects on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) 18 are lacking. We evaluated these effects by feeding APOE*3-Leiden mice a Western-type diet (WTD) 19 with or without atorvastatin to induce NASH and hepatic fibrosis. Besides the well-known plasma 20 cholesterol lowering (-30%) and anti-atherogenic effects (severe lesion size -48%), atorvastatin sig-21 nificantly reduced hepatic steatosis (-22%), the number of aggregated inflammatory cells in the liver 22 (-80%) and hepatic fibrosis (-92%) compared to WTD-fed mice. Furthermore, atorvastatin-treated 23 mice showed less immunohistochemically stained area of inflammation markers. Atorvastatin pre-24 vented accumulation of free cholesterol in the form of cholesterol crystals (-78%). Cholesterol crys-25 tals are potent inducers of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway and atorvastatin prevented its acti-26 vation, which resulted in reduced expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β 27 (-61%) and IL-18 (-26%). Transcriptome analysis confirmed strong reducing effects of atorvastatin 28 on inflammatory mediators, including NLRP3, NFκB and TLR4. The present study demonstrates 29 that atorvastatin reduces hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis and prevents cholesterol crys-30 tal formation, thereby precluding NLRP3 inflammasome activation. This may render atorvastatin 31 treatment as an attractive approach to reduce NAFLD and prevent progression into NASH in 32 dyslipidemic patients.
Project description:To understand the effects of Hsp60 deficiency in developing vertebrates, we generated CRISPR/Cas9-mediated hspd1 knockout zebrafish lines by targeting exon 2 to induce a frameshift mutation. We selected an allele with a 56 base pair deletion inducing a frameshift mutation leading to loss of protein functions. We examined the proteome changes in zebrafish larvae at 5 days post fertilization (DPF). Wildtype control and hspd1-/- larvae at 5dpf, were analyzed by TMT and nanoLC-MS/MS based proteomcis. For this purpose, we studied five pools from each genotype, and each pool consisted of five larvae.
Project description:Aims: Atorvastatin is a commonly used cholesterol-lowering drug that possesses non-canonical anti-inflammatory properties. However, the precise mechanism underlying its anti-inflammatory effects remains unclear. Materials and methods: The acute phase of ulcerative colitis (UC) was induced using a 5 % dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) solution for 7 consecutive days and administrated with atorvastatin (10 mg/kg) from day 3 to day 7. mRNA-seq, histological pathology, and inflammatory response were determined. Intestinal microbiota alteration, tryptophan, and its metabolites were analyzed through 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics. Key findings: Atorvastatin relieved the DSS-induced UC in mice, as evidenced by colon length, body weight, disease activity index score and pathological staining. Atorvastatin treatment reduced the level of pro_x0002_inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Atorvastatin also relieved the intestinal microbiota disorder caused by UC and decreased the proliferation of pernicious microbiota such as Akkermansia and Bacteroides. Atorvastatin dramatically altered tryptophan metabolism and increased the fecal contents of tryptophan, indolelactic acid (ILA), and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Furthermore, atorvastatin enhanced the expression level of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and interleukin-22 (IL-22) and further promoted the expression level of intestinal tight junction proteins, such as ZO-1 and occludin, in colitis mice. Significance: These findings indicated that atorvastatin could alleviate UC by regulating intestinal flora disorders, promoting microbial tryptophan metabolism, and repairing the intestinal barrier.
Project description:Rationale: Immortalized cells may exhibit important differences relative to their primary cell counterparts. Microarrays were used compare primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the immortalized HUVEC cell line EA.hy926, in their response to inhibition of the mevalonate pathway by a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (atorvastatin). The effects of atorvastatin were reversed by the addition of mevalonate, to subtract non-specific changes in gene expression. Methods: Confluent cell cultures of HUVECs and EA.hy926 cells (two independent experiments in each cell type) were incubated with 1) statin-free media; 2) 10 microM atorvastatin; 3) 500 microM mevalonate; or 4) a combination of 10 microM atorvastatin and 500 microM mevalonate. All cells were harvested at 24 h. Total RNA was isolated using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen). cDNA was prepared from 10 microgram total RNA using a double-stranded cDNA synthesis kit (Life Technologies) with a T7-dT24 primer for first-strand synthesis. cRNA was synthesized from cDNA and biotinylated using the BioArray High Yield RNA Transcript Labeling Kit (Enzo Diagnostics). Twenty microgram of cRNA was fragmented by heating at 94°C for 35 min in fragmentation buffer, containing 40 mM Tris-acetate, pH 8.1, 125 mM KOAc, 30 mM MgOAc. Fifteen micrgram of fragmented cRNA, together with control cRNAs and grid alignment oligonucleotides, were hybridized overnight to GeneChip Human Genome U133A 2.0 arrays (Affymetrix) at 45°C under constant rotation. Arrays were washed and incubated with an anti-streptavidin antibody. Fluorescent signals were measured using an Agilent Gene Array Laser Scanner and analyzed with MicroArray Suite 5.0 (Affymetrix). Microarrays were scaled using default settings. Keywords: other
Project description:For RNA-seq experiments, 20 embryos were placed into 5 mL final volume of sterile ERM. Each treatment group were exposed within a 10-minute window. Exposure groups included ERM, [100 ng/L AVS or 1 µg/L AVS] or [100 ng/L or 1 µg/L afidopyropen] (N=5 beakers per treatment). On 7 days post fertilization (dpf), fish were transferred to a labeled and pre-weighed 1.7 mL tube. The tube was then immediately flash frozen in liquid nitrogen prior to RNA-seq analysis.