Background Growing evidences have been revealing that long noncoding RNAs are vital factors in oncogenesis and tumor development. Among them, cancer susceptibility candidate 11 (CASC11) has displayed an impressively essential role in various kinds of cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nevertheless, its role and potential mechanism in HCC still remain to be fully investigated. Methods CASC11 expression level was evaluated by real‐time polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and in situ hybridization staining in HCC patients, and its prognostic effect was analyzed. The role of CASC11 in HCC tumorigenesis and progression was investigated by cell proliferation assay, transwell assay, extracellular acidification rate, western blotting, flow cytometry, and an in vivo xenograft model. The interactions among CASC11, E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1), and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A3 (EIF4A3) were explored by using quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, RNA‐binding protein immunoprecipitation assay, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Results Upregulation of CASC11 was confirmed in HCC tissues and associated with poor prognosis. Loss of function assays showed inhibition of CASC11 expression suppressed HCC cells proliferation, mobility, and glucose metabolism and promoted apoptosis. E2F1 expression significantly decreased after inhibition of CASC11. Rescue experiments illustrated that E2F1 overexpression alleviated the suppression of CASC11 inhibition on HCC progression in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, CASC11 recruited EIF4A3 to enhance the stability of E2F1 mRNA. CASC11 and E2F1 impacted the activation of the NF‐κB signaling and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and further regulated the expression PD‐L1 that is an important target of immunotherapy. In addition, we identified YY1 could modulate CASC11 expression by binding to its promoter. Conclusions Our data revealed that CASC11 promoted the progression of HCC by means of EIF4A3‐mediated E2F1 upregulation, indicating CASC11 is a promising diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.

Objectives Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a hidden neurological degenerative disease, which main clinical manifestations are cognitive dysfunction, memory impairment and mental disorders. Neuroinflammation is considered as a basic response of the central nervous system. NLRP3 (Nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) and pyrin domain containing receptor 3) inflammasome is closely related to the occurrence of neuroinflammation. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome results in the release of cytokines, pore formation and ultimately pyroptosis, which has demonstrated one of the critical roles in AD pathogenesis. Inhibition of the activity of NLRP3 is one of the focuses of the research. Therefore, NLRP3 represents an attractive pharmacological target, and discovery compounds with good NLRP3 inhibitory activity are particularly important. Key findings Quinones have good neuroprotective effects and prevent AD, which may be related to their regulation of inflammatory response. The molecular docking was used to explore 12 quinones with AD prevention and treatment and NLRP3. Docking results showed that the combination of anthraquinones and NLRP3 were the best, and the top two chemical compounds were Purpurin and Rhein, which are the most promising NLRP3 inhibitors. Summary These quinones may provide the theoretical basis for finding lead compounds for novel neuroprotective agents. Quinones as NLRP3 inflammasomes inhibitors Da-bao Chen et al.

Background. Huang-Pu-Tong-Qiao formula (HPTQ), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula used to improve cognitive impairment. However, the underlying neuroprotective mechanism of HPTQ treated for diabetic cognitive dysfunction (DCD) remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the neuroprotective mechanism of HPTQ in DCD mice based on molecular docking. Methods. To investigate the neuroprotective effect of HPTQ in DCD, the Morris water maze (MWM), novel object recognition (NOR) test was used to detect the learning and memory changes of mice; hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to investigate the damage of hippocampal neurons; the western blot (WB) was used to examine the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) of hippocampus. To investigate the neuroprotective mechanism of HPTQ in DCD, molecular docking was used to predict the possible target proteins of different active components in HPTQ and then the WB was used to verify the expression of key target proteins in the hippocampus of mice. Results. HPTQ improved the learning and memory ability, hippocampal neuron damage, and the level of BDNF in the hippocampus of the DCD model treated with HFD/STZ for 12 weeks. Besides, the results of molecular docking showed that the main chemical components of HPTQ could be well combined with the targets of Bcl-2-associated X (Bax) and B-cell lymphoma2 (Bcl-2) and caspase-3. The levels of Bax/Bcl-2 protein ratio and caspase-3 increased in the DCD model while the HPTQ inhibited it. In addition, HPTQ restored DCD-induced decline of p-CREB, BDNF, TrkB, and p-Akt in the hippocampus. Conclusions. These data indicated that HPTQ ameliorates the hippocampus apoptosis in diabetic cognitive dysfunction mice by activating CREB/BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway.

It is widely recognized that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has a complicate link to renin-angiotensin system (RAS). It is known that cerebrovascular disease has some connections with AD, but most of the studies are still conducted in parallel or independently. Although previous research came up with large number of hypotheses about the pathogenesis of AD, it does not include the mechanism of RAS-related regulation of AD. It has been found that many components of RAS have been changed in AD. For example, the multifunctional and high-efficiency vasoconstrictor Ang II and Ang III with similar effects are changed under the action of other RAS signal peptides; these signal peptides are believed to help improve nerve injury and cognitive function. These changes may lead to neuropathological changes of AD, and progressive defects of cognitive function, which are association with some hypotheses of AD. The role of RAS in AD gradually attracts our attention, and RAS deserved to be considered carefully in the pathogenesis of AD. This review discusses the mechanisms of RAS participating in the three current hypotheses of AD: neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and amyloid-β protein (Aβ) hypothesis, as well as the drugs that regulate RAS systems already in clinical or in clinical trials. It further demonstrates the importance of RAS in the pathogenesis of AD, not only because of its multiple aspects of participation, which may be accidental, but also because of the availability of RAS drugs, which can be reused as therapies of AD.