Study on the mechanism of cholic acid derivatives in traditional Chinese medicine based on the regulation of gene expression

Objective:To investigate the pharmacological action and mechanism of cholic acid derivatives in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)based on the regulation of gene expression.Methods:Genome-wide gene expression profiles of Michigan Cancer Foundation-7(MCF-7)cells treated with or without 4 cholic acid derivatives were detected by gene chip technology.Similarities in upregulated and downregulated genes were analyzed using the Connectivity Map(CMap)database.The affinity between cholic acid derivatives and the potential target was confirmed by molecular docking.The cholic acid derivative-regulated pathway enrichment analysis was performed by the STRING database,and the potential pathway was confirmed by in vitro experiments on MD Anderson-Metastatic Breast-231(MDA-MB-231)cells.Results:Compared with the reference genome in the CMap database,the gene expression profiles of cholic acid derivatives were similar to those of antipsychotic,anticancer,anti-inflammatory,and antiinfective drugs.Among them,4 derivatives were associated with antianxiety drugs,and molecular docking results showed that these compounds may act by binding to the ligand-binding site of gammaaminobutyric acid(GABA)receptors.Moreover,the cytoskeletal pathway is one of the pathways enriched in the derivatives.Of them,ursodeoxycholic acid showed significant inhibitory activity on the cytoskeleton formation of MDA-MB-231 cells.Conclusion:The gene expression detection method,combined with CMap and pathway enrichment analysis,could be used to study the mechanism of the active ingredients of TCM.In addition,our research showed that cholic acid derivatives have a potential affinity for membrane receptors,where they can exert anxiolytic activity by modulating opioid receptor,GABA receptor,and dopamine receptor.Moreover,ursodeoxycholic and chenodeoxycholic acid inhibit cytoskeleton formation,probably by acting on membrane proteins to activate the corresponding cytoskeletal pathways.

Integrative omics analysis identifies macrophage migration inhibitory factor signaling pathways underlying human hepatic fibrogenesis and fibrosis

The genetic basis underlying liver fibrosis remains largely unknown.We conducted a study to identify genetic alleles and underlying pathways associated with hepatic fibrogenesis and fibrosis at the genome-wide level in 121 human livers.By accepting a liberal significance level of P<1e-4,we identified 73 and 71 candidate loci respectively affecting the variability in alpha-smooth muscle actin(a-SMA)levels(fibrogenesis)and total collagen content(fibrosis).The top genetic loci associated with the two markers were BAZA1 and NOL10 for a-SMA expression and FAM46A for total collagen content(P<1e-6).We further investigated the relationship between the candidate loci and the nearby gene transcription levels(cis-expression quantitative trait loci)in the same liver samples.We found that 44 candidate loci for a-SMA expression and 44 for total collagen content were also associated with the transcription of the nearby genes(P<0.05).Pathway analyses of these genes indicated that macrophage migration inhibitory factor(MIF)related pathway is significantly associated with fibrogenesis and fibrosis,though different genes were enriched for each marker.The association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms,MIF and a-SMA showed that decreased MIF expression is correlated with increased a-SMA expression,suggesting that variations in MIF locus might affect the susceptibility of fibrogenesis through controlling MIF gene expression.In summary,our study identified candidate alleles and pathways underlying both fibrogenesis and fibrosis in human livers.Our bioinformatics analyses suggested MIF pathway as a strong candidate involved in liver fibrosis,thus further investigation for the role of the MIF pathway in liver fibrosis is warranted.The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board(IRB)of Wayne State University(approval No.201842)on May 17,2018.