Chicory polysaccharides alleviate high-fat diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease via alteration of lipid metabolism-and inflammation-related gene expression

Administration of chicory polysaccharides(CP) can modify lipid metabolism, improve dyslipidemia, and reduce liver inflammation, all of which may help alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to gain further understanding of the potential molecular mechanisms that mediate the protective effects of CP against NAFLD via transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses. Hepatic RNA-sequencing analysis demonstrated that long-term intake of CP restored expression of lipid metabolism-related genes Xbp1, Insig2, and Cth in NAFLD rats, thereby inhibiting de novo lipogenesis. Moreover, CP consumption restored expression levels of genes involved in pro-inflammatory responses, such as Irf1. In addition, metabolic data confirmed that CP treatment increased levels of L-palmitoylcarnitine and hexadecanoyl-Co A, implying that CP administration can promote hepatic fatty acid β-oxidation. The present results demonstrate the underlying mechanisms of CP in high-fat dietinduced NAFLD rats and suggest that CP treatment might provide a dietary therapeutic tool for the treatment of NAFLD in humans.

Spectrofluorometry of Ions and Small Molecules Based on Conformational Changes of Specific Oligonucleotides with o-Phthalaldehyde-β-mercaptoethanol

Specific oligonucleotides such as telomere DNA and aptamer often undergo conformational changes upon ligand binding. Composite reagent composed of o-phthalaldehyde and β-mercaptoethanol（OPAME） has been extensively applied to fluorescent detection of amino compounds based on the reaction of primary amino-group, herein we proposed a general spectrofluorometry for ions and small molecules due to conformational changes upon ligand binding taking K^＋ and ATP as examples. In a borate controlled buffer medium, telomere DNA could react with OPAME, giving a thio-subtituted isoindole compound with strong fluorescence emission at 455 nm when excited at 340 nm. It was found that however, the fluorescence emission was greatly reduced in the presence of K^＋ since the formation of the quadruplex structure inhibits the reaction activity of amino-groups of telomere DNA. In order to testify the general application of OPAME reagent based on the conformational change of oligonucleotides, we further proposed a sensitive method of ATP based on its highly selective interaction with ATP-aptamer. The above mentioned applications show that the spectrofluorometry with the aid of OPAME reagent is simple, label free that is expected to be potentially general for DNA conformational change-based target detection.