Saikosaponin D improves nonalcoholic fatty liver disease via gut microbiota-bile acid metabolism pathway

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)is the main cause of chronic liver disease worldwide.Bupleurum is widely used in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver,and saikosaponin D(SSD)is one of the main active components of Bupleurum.The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of SSD in the treatment of NAFLD and to explore the mechanism of SSD in the improvement of NAFLD based on“gut-liver axis”.Our results showed that SSD dose-dependently alleviated high fat diet-induced weight gain in mice,improved insulin sensitivity,and also reduced liver lipid accumulation and injury-related biomarkers aspartate aminotransferase(AST)and alanine aminotransferase(ALT).Further exploration found that SSD inhibited the mRNA expression levels of farnesoid X receptor(Fxr),small heterodimer partner(Shp),recombinant fibroblast growth factor 15(Fgf15)and apical sodium dependent bile acid transporter(Asbt)in the intestine,suggesting that SSD improved liver lipid metabolism by inhibiting intestinal FXR signaling.SSD can significantly reduce the gut microbiota associated with bile salt hydrolase(BSH)expression,such as Clostridium.Decreased BSH expression reduced the ratio of unconjugated to conjugated bile acids,thereby inhibiting the intestinal FXR.These data demonstrated that SSD ameliorated NAFLD potentially through the gut microbiota-bile acidintestinal FXR pathway and suggested that SSD is a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of NAFLD.

Fixed-Time Adaptive Time-Varying Matrix Projective Synchronization of Time-Delayed Chaotic Systems with Different Dimensions

This paper deals with the fixed-time adaptive time-varying matrix projective synchronization(ATVMPS)of different dimensional chaotic systems(DDCSs)with time delays and unknown parameters.Firstly,to estimate the unknown parameters,adaptive parameter updated laws are designed.Secondly,to realize the fixed-time ATVMPS of the time-delayed DDCSs,an adaptive delay-unrelated controller is designed,where time delays of chaotic systems are known or unknown.Thirdly,some simple fixed-time ATVMPS criteria are deduced,and the rigorous proof is provided by employing the inequality technique and Lyapunov theory.Furthermore,the settling time of fixed-time synchronization(Fix-TS)is obtained,which depends only on controller parameters and system parameters and is independent of the system’s initial states.Finally,simulation examples are presented to validate the theoretical analysis.

An integrative profiling of metabolome and transcriptome in the plasma and skeletal muscle following an exercise intervention in diet-induced obese mice

Exercise intervention at the early stage of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)can aid in the maintenance of blood glucose homeostasis and prevent the development of macrovascular and microvascular complications.However,the exercise-regulated pathways that prevent the development of T2DM remain largely unclear.In this study,two forms of exercise intervention,treadmill training and voluntary wheel running,were conducted for high-fat diet(HFD)-induced obese mice.We observed that both forms of exercise intervention alleviated HFD-induced insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.Skeletal muscle is recognized as the primary site for postprandial glucose uptake and for responsive alteration beyond exercise training.Metabolomic profiling of the plasma and skeletal muscle in Chow,HFD,and HFD-exercise groups revealed robust alterations in metabolic pathways by exercise intervention in both cases.Overlapping analysis identified nine metabolites,including beta-alanine,leucine,valine,and tryptophan,which were reversed by exercise treatment in both the plasma and skeletal muscle.Transcriptomic analysis of gene expression profiles in the skeletal muscle revealed several key pathways involved in the beneficial effects of exercise on metabolic homeostasis.In addition,integrative transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses uncovered strong correlations between the concentrations of bioactive metabolites and the expression levels of genes involved in energy metabolism,insulin sensitivity,and immune response in the skeletal muscle.This work established two models of exercise intervention in obese mice and provided mechanistic insights into the beneficial effects of exercise intervention on systemic energy homeostasis.

Significant Inhibition of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus In Vitro by Remdesivir,Its Parent Nucleoside and β-D-N^(4)-hydroxycytidine

Porcine epidemic diarrhea(PED)caused by porcine epidemic diarrhea virus(PEDV)is widespread in the world.In recent years,the increased virulence of the virus due to viral variations,has caused great economic losses to the pig industry in many countries.It is always worthy to find effective therapeutic methods for PED.As an important class of antivirals,nucleoside drugs which target viral polymerases have been applied in treating human viral infections for half a century.Herein,we evaluated the anti-PEDV potential of three broad-spectrum antiviral nucleoside analogs,remdesivir(RDV),its parent nucleoside(RDV-N)andβ-D-N^(4)-hydroxycytidine(NHC).Among them,RDV-N was the most active agent in Vero E6 cells with EC_(50) of 0.31μmol/L,and more potent than RDV(EC_(50)=0.74μmol/L)and NHC(EC_(50)=1.17μmol/L).The activity of RDV-N was further confirmed using an indirect immuno-fluorescence assay.Moreover,RDV-N exhibited a good safety profile in cells and in mice.The high sequence similarity of the polymerase functional domains of PEDV with other five porcine coronaviruses indicated a broader antiviral spectrum for the three compounds.Generally,RDV-N is a promising broad-spectrum antiviral nucleoside,and it would be worthy to make some structural modifications to increse its oral bioavailability.