NAMPT single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1319501 and visfatin/NAMPT affect nitric oxide formation, sFlt-1 and antihypertensive therapy response in preeclampsia

Aim: We examined the relationships between visfatin/NAMPT and nitrite concentrations (a marker of nitric oxide [NO] formation) or sFlt-1 levels in 205 patients with preeclampsia (PE) responsive or nonresponsive to antihypertensive therapy, and whether NAMPT SNPs rs1319501 and rs3801266 affect nitrite concentrations in PE and 206 healthy pregnant women. Patients & methods: Circulating visfatin/NAMPT and sFlt-1 levels were measured by ELISA, and nitrite concentrations by using an ozone-based chemiluminescence assay. Results: In nonresponsive PE patients, visfatin/NAMPT levels were inversely related to nitrite concentrations and positively related to sFlt-1 levels. NAMPT SNP rs1319501 affected nitrite concentrations in nonresponsive PE patients and was tightly linked with NAMPT functional SNPs in Europeans. Conclusion: NAMPT SNP rs1319501 and visfatin/NAMPT affect NO formation, sFlt-1 levels and antihypertensive therapy response in PE.

GN1, Glucosamine Analog, attenuate the neuronal hyperactivity of c-fos gene in Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis in Rats

ABSTRACTThe anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic activity of GN1 (6-hydroxymethyl-3-(1-methylene-allylamino)-tetrahydro-pyran-2,4,5-triol), an analog of glucoseamine was investigated in the adjuvant induced arthritis (AIA) in rats. It was observed that the highly increased hind paw swelling was significantly reduced (p <0.001) with no noticeable retardation of body weight in the GN1 treated arthritic rats as compared to arthritic control rats. The histopathological analysis of isolated rat joints by scaling system classification of different stages appear in arthritic inflammatory lesion development, disclosed the suppressive effect in the inflammation processing in the GN1 treated animals. Different predictive markers such as TNF-α, nitric oxide IL-1β, peroxide and glutathione were also determined in the serum samples of the treated and non-treated arthritic rats in order to measure the intensity of inflammation. Our results show that GN-1 treatment in arthritic groups demonstrated marked reduction in c-fos expression. Results also revealed that GN1 significantly reduces the peroxide production (p < 0.002) and both the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α (p < 0.015) and IL-1β (p < 0.001) in the arthritic rats receiving this treatment. Although, nitric oxide formation was found to be less than the arthritic control, but this reduction was not significant. The level of glutathione was significantly increased in GN1 treated arthritic rats (p < 0.037). These observations suggest that GN1 may help in reducing the inflammation and have anti-arthritic properties.

Isolation and Characterization of New Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Components from Deep Marine-Derived Fungus Myrothecium sp. Bzo-l062

In the present study, four new compounds including a pair of 2-benzoyl tetrahydrofuran enantiomers, namely, (−)-1S-myrothecol (1a) and (+)-1R-myrothecol (1b), a methoxy-myrothecol racemate (2), and an azaphilone derivative, myrothin (3), were isolated along with four known compounds (4–7) from cultures of the deep-sea fungus Myrothecium sp. BZO-L062. Enantiomeric compounds 1a and 1b were separated through normal-phase chiral high-performance liquid chromatography. The absolute configurations of 1a, 1b, and 3 were assigned by ECD spectra. Among them, the new compound 1a and its enantiomer 1b exhibited anti-inflammatory activity, inhibited nitric oxide formation in lipopolysaccharide-treated RAW264.7 cells, and exhibited antioxidant activity in the 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity assays.