Project description:We have used computational and experimental biology approaches to identify candidate mechanisms of action of a traditional Chinese medicine; Compound Kushen Injection (CKI), in a breast cancer cell line in which CKI has been shown to cause apoptosis. Because CKI is a complex mixture of plant secondary metabolites, we used a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fractionation and reconstitution approach to define chemical fractions required for CKI to induce apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells. Our initial fractionation separated major from minor compounds, and showed that the major compounds accounted for little of the activity of CKI. By systematically perturbing the major compounds in CKI we found that removal of no single major compound could alter the effect of CKI on cell viability and apoptosis. However, simultaneous removal of two major compounds identified oxymatrine and oxysophocarpine as critical compounds with respect to CKI activity. We then used RNA sequencing and transcriptome analysis to correlate compound removal with gene expression and phenotype data. We determined that many compounds in CKI are required for its effectiveness in triggering apoptosis but that significant modulation of its activity is conferred by a small number of compounds. In conclusion, CKI may be typical of many plant based extracts that contain many compounds in that no single compound is responsible for all of the bioactivity of the mixture and that many compounds interact in a complex fashion to influence a network containing many targets.
Project description:Hypericum perforatum extracts have been used as dietary supplements to treat conditions including mild-moderate depression and inflammation. A group of four bioactive constituents were identified from an active fraction of the extract. In order to identify the mechanism for the potential anti-inflammatory activity of the identified compounds, we used Affymatrix microarray to study the gene expression profile impacteded by these compounds, as well as the active fraction in LPS-stimulated mouse macrophages.
Project description:In this study, we have characterized and compared the effects of differently prepared chamomile extracts and characteristic pure compounds on the T cell redox milieu as well as on the migration, activation, proliferation, and cytokine production of primary human T cells. Futhermore, nCounter based gene expression profiling was performed on the most promising extracts (Chamomile aqueous total fermented-CT, aqueous toot fermented-CR, and ethanolic flower-CF) and pure compounds (Apigenin-Ap and Chamazulene-Cz) to identify the genes related to different T cell functions, that were targeted by the different treatment conditions.