scholarly journals A novel function of CREG in metabolic disorders

2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Li ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tian ◽  
Quanyu Zhang ◽  
Chenghui Yan ◽  
Yaling Han

Abstract Metabolic disorders are public health problems that require prevention and new efficient drugs for treatment. Cellular repressor of E1A-stimulated genes (CREG) is ubiquitously expressed in mature tissues and cells in mammals and plays a critical role in keeping cells or tissues in a mature, homeostatic state. Recently, CREG turns to be an important mediator in the development of metabolic disorders. Here in this review, we briefly discuss the structure and molecular regulation of CREG along with the therapeutic strategy to combat the metabolic disorders.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Ianevski ◽  
Rouan Yo ◽  
Hilde Lysvand ◽  
Gunnveig Grodeland ◽  
Nicolas Legrand ◽  
...  

SARS-CoV-2 and its vaccine/immune-escaping variants continue to pose a serious threat to public health due to a paucity of effective, rapidly deployable, and widely available treatments. Here we address these challenges by combining Pegasys (IFNa) and nafamostat to effectively suppress SARS-CoV-2 infection in cell culture and hamsters. Our results indicate that Serpin E1 is an important mediator of the antiviral activity of IFNa and that both Serpin E1 and camostat can target the same cellular factor TMPRSS2, which plays a critical role in viral replication. The low doses of the drugs in combination may have several clinical advantages, including fewer adverse events and improved patient outcome. Thus, our study may provide a proactive solution for the ongoing pandemic and potential future coronavirus outbreaks, which is still urgently required in many parts of the world.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1768
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Ianevski ◽  
Rouan Yao ◽  
Hilde Lysvand ◽  
Gunnveig Grødeland ◽  
Nicolas Legrand ◽  
...  

SARS-CoV-2 and its vaccine/immune-escaping variants continue to pose a serious threat to public health due to a paucity of effective, rapidly deployable, and widely available treatments. Here, we address these challenges by combining Pegasys (IFNα) and nafamostat to effectively suppress SARS-CoV-2 infection in cell culture and hamsters. Our results indicate that Serpin E1 is an important mediator of the antiviral activity of IFNα and that both Serpin E1 and nafamostat can target the same cellular factor TMPRSS2, which plays a critical role in viral replication. The low doses of the drugs in combination may have several clinical advantages, including fewer adverse events and improved patient outcome. Thus, our study may provide a proactive solution for the ongoing pandemic and potential future coronavirus outbreaks, which is still urgently required in many parts of the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-287
Author(s):  
S. Viesy ◽  
J. Abdi ◽  
Z. Rezaei

Background: Intestinal parasitic infections are the one of the most common health problems in developing countries. Objective: A number of patients die annually due to complications caused by these parasites.Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the rate and type of parasitic infections, determine the factors affecting them in Ilam city and also provide strategies to prevent them.In this descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in one of the Ilam labs in 2016, 417 stool specimens were randomly collected. All specimens were examined using direct and ethanol formaldehyde.Suspect specimens were examined using Trichrom staining. Demographic information was also recorded in a questionnaire, and finally the results were analyzed using statistical software SPSS 20.The data were then compared with Chi-square test. Results: Out of the 417 patients examined, 59 (14.1%) were infected with intestinal parasites. The type of parasitic infection in 9.4% was Blastocystis hominis, 3.6% Entamoeba coli, 0.5% Entamoeba histolytica, 0.5% Giardia and 0.2% Trichomonas hominis. Conclusion: Despite the improvement of public health, parasitic infections are still considered as one of the health problems in the city of Ilam. Therefore, proper planning, public health education, raising the level of health in the area and the provision of safe drinking water are some of the ways to reduce parasitic infections in the region.


Author(s):  
Scott Burris ◽  
Micah L. Berman ◽  
Matthew Penn, and ◽  
Tara Ramanathan Holiday

Chapter 5 discusses the use of epidemiology to identify the source of public health problems and inform policymaking. It uses a case study to illustrate how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners detect diseases, identify their sources, determine the extent of an outbreak, and prevent new infections. The chapter also defines key measures in epidemiology that can indicate public health priorities, including morbidity and mortality, years of potential life lost, and measures of lifetime impacts, including disability-adjusted life years and quality-adjusted life years. Finally, the chapter reviews epidemiological study designs, differentiating between experimental and observational studies, to show how to interpret data and identify limitations.


Author(s):  
Samuel Kwasi Opoku ◽  
Walter Leal Filho ◽  
Fudjumdjum Hubert ◽  
Oluwabunmi Adejumo

Climate change is a global problem, which affects the various geographical regions at different levels. It is also associated with a wide range of human health problems, which pose a burden to health systems, especially in regions such as Africa. Indeed, across the African continent public health systems are under severe pressure, partly due to their fragile socioeconomic conditions. This paper reports on a cross-sectional study in six African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia, and Kenya) aimed at assessing their vulnerabilities to climate change, focusing on its impacts on human health. The study evaluated the levels of information, knowledge, and perceptions of public health professionals. It also examined the health systems’ preparedness to cope with these health hazards, the available resources, and those needed to build resilience to the country’s vulnerable population, as perceived by health professionals. The results revealed that 63.1% of the total respondents reported that climate change had been extensively experienced in the past years, while 32% claimed that the sampled countries had experienced them to some extent. Nigerian respondents recorded the highest levels (67.7%), followed by Kenya with 66.6%. South Africa had the lowest level of impact as perceived by the respondents (50.0%) when compared with the other sampled countries. All respondents from Ghana and Namibia reported that health problems caused by climate change are common in the two countries. As perceived by the health professionals, the inadequate resources reiterate the need for infrastructural resources, medical equipment, emergency response resources, and technical support. The study’s recommendations include the need to improve current policies at all levels (i.e., national, regional, and local) on climate change and public health and to strengthen health professionals’ skills. Improving the basic knowledge of health institutions to better respond to a changing climate is also recommended. The study provides valuable insights which may be helpful to other nations in Sub-Saharan Africa.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zetao Chen ◽  
Yihong Chen ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Weidong Lian ◽  
Kehong Zheng ◽  
...  

AbstractGlioma is one of the most lethal cancers with highly vascularized networks and growing evidences have identified glioma stem cells (GSCs) to account for excessive angiogenesis in glioma. Aberrant expression of paired-related homeobox1 (Prrx1) has been functionally associated with cancer stem cells including GSCs. In this study, Prrx1 was found to be markedly upregulated in glioma specimens and elevated Prrx1 expression was inversely correlated with prognosis of glioma patients. Prrx1 potentiated stemness acquisition in non-stem tumor cells (NSTCs) and stemness maintenance in GSCs, accompanied with increased expression of stemness markers such as SOX2. Prrx1 also promoted glioma angiogenesis by upregulating proangiogenic factors such as VEGF. Consistently, silencing Prrx1 markedly inhibited glioma proliferation, stemness, and angiogenesis in vivo. Using a combination of subcellular proteomics and in vitro analyses, we revealed that Prrx1 directly bound to the promoter regions of TGF-β1 gene, upregulated TGF-β1 expression, and ultimately activated the TGF-β/smad pathway. Silencing TGF-β1 mitigated the malignant behaviors induced by Prrx1. Activation of this pathway cooperates with Prrx1 to upregulate the expression of stemness-related genes and proangiogenic factors. In summary, our findings revealed that Prrx1/TGF-β/smad signal axis exerted a critical role in glioma stemness and angiogeneis. Disrupting the function of this signal axis might represent a new therapeutic strategy in glioma patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. eaaz4107
Author(s):  
Pei-Pei Yang ◽  
Kuo Zhang ◽  
Ping-Ping He ◽  
Yu Fan ◽  
Xuejiao J. Gao ◽  
...  

Platelets play a critical role in the regulation of coagulation, one of the essential processes in life, attracting great attention. However, mimicking platelets for in vivo artificial coagulation is still a great challenge due to the complexity of the process. Here, we design platelet-like nanoparticles (pNPs) based on self-assembled peptides that initiate coagulation and form clots in blood vessels. The pNPs first bind specifically to a membrane glycoprotein (i.e., CD105) overexpressed on angiogenetic endothelial cells in the tumor site and simultaneously transform into activated platelet-like nanofibers (apNFs) through ligand-receptor interactions. Next, the apNFs expose more binding sites and recruit and activate additional pNPs, forming artificial clots in both phantom and animal models. The pNPs are proven to be safe in mice without systemic coagulation. The self-assembling peptides mimic platelets and achieve artificial coagulation in vivo, thus providing a promising therapeutic strategy for tumors.


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