Atractylodis Rhizoma is a traditional medicinal herb, which has antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic, anticancer, gastroprotective and neuroprotective activities. It is widely used for treating fever, cold, phlegm, edema and arthralgia syndrome in South-East Asian nations. In this study, 6 chemical compositions of Atractylodis Rhizoma were characterized by spectral analysis and their antiviral activities were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Among them, atractylon showed most significant antiviral activities. Atractylon treatment at doses of 10–40 mg/kg for 5 days attenuated influenza A virus (IAV)-induced pulmonary injury and decreased the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and IL-1β, but increased interferon-β (IFN-β) levels. Atractylon treatment upregulated the expression of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7), MyD88, tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 and IFN-β mRNA but downregulated nuclear factor-κB p65 protein expression in the lung tissues of IAV-infected mice. These results demonstrated that atractylon significantly alleviated IAV-induced lung injury via regulating the TLR7 signaling pathway, and may warrant further evaluation as a possible agent for IAV treatment.

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BackgroundNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a clinical frequent disease. However, its pathogenesis still needs further study, especially the mechanism at the molecular level. The recent identified novel protein post-translational modification, lysine succinylation was reported involved in diverse metabolism and cellular processes. In this study, we performed the quantitative succinylome analysis in the liver of NAFLD model to elucidate the regulatory role of lysine succinylation in NAFLD progression.MethodsFirstly, experimental model of NAFLD was induced by carbon tetrachloride injection and supplementary high-lipid and low-protein diet. Then series histochemical and biochemical variables were determined. For the quantitative succinylome analysis, tandem mass tags (TMT)-labeling, highly sensitive immune-affinity purification, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry techniques were applied. Bioinformatics analysis including gene ontology annotation based classification; Wolfpsort based subcellular prediction; function enrichment; protein-protein interaction network construction and conserved succinylation site motifs extraction were performed to decipher the differentially changed succinylated proteins and sites and p-value < 0.05 was selected as threshold.ResultsTotally, 815 succinylation sites on 407 proteins were identified, of which 243 succinylation acetylation sites on 178 proteins showed changed succinylation level with the threshold fold change > 1.5. Theses differentially changed succinylated proteins were involved in diverse metabolism pathways and cellular processes including carbon metabolism, amino acid metabolism, fat acid metabolism, binding and catalyzing, anti-oxidation and xenobiotics metabolism. Besides, these differentially changed succinylated proteins were prominently localized to cytoplasm and mitochondria. Moreover, 8 conserved succinylation site motifs were extracted around the succinylation sites.ConclusionsProtein succinylation was an extensive post-translation modification in rat. The changed succinylation level in diverse proteins may disturb multiple metabolism pathways and promote non-alcoholic fatty liver disease development. This study provided a basis for further characterization of the pathophysiological role of lysine succinylation in NAFLD progression, which laid a foundation for the innovation of novel NAFLD drugs and therapies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12953-016-0092-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.