Project description:A transcriptomic comparative analysis was performed to gain further insight on the allergic or irritant molecular signature of skin reactions induced by amerchol L-101 patch tests.
Project description:Several lines of evidence have shown that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) may play a role in the pathophysiology of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Thereby, structurally different dual PPARγ/CB2 agonists such as VCE-004.8 and Ajulemic acid (AjA) have been shown to alleviate skin fibrosis and inflammation in experimental models of SSc. Since both compounds are currently being tested in humans, we were interested to identify similarities and differences in a murine model of SSc. One method available to assess this is the pharmacotranscriptomic signature of the individual compounds. To analyze the pharmacotranscriptomic signature, we used RNA-Seq to analyze the skin gene expression changes from bleomycin-induced fibrosis in mice treated orally with either AjA or EHP-101, a lipidic formulation of VCE-004.8. While both compounds prevented the upregulation of a common group of genes involved in the inflammatory and fibrotic components of the disease and the pharmacotranscriptomic signatures were similar for both compounds in some pathways, we found key differences between the compounds in several functional groups, including genes related the hypoxia, interferon-α and interferon-γ response. Additionally, we found 28 specific genes with translation potential by comparing our results with a list of intrinsic human scleroderma genes. Inmunohistochemical analysis revealed that both EHP-101 and AjA prevented bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis, collagen accumulation, and TNC and VCAM expression. However, only EHP-101 normalized the reduced expression of vascular CD31, CD34 and Von Willebrand factor markers, which parallels skin fibrosis, while AjA did not affect these markers. Finally, clear differences were also found in the plasmatic biomarker analysis, in which we found that EHP-101, but not AjA, enhanced the expression of some factors related to angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. Altogether the results indicate that dual PPARγ/CB2 agonists qualify as a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of SSc and other fibrotic diseases as well, and that EHP-101 has unique mechanisms of action related to the pathophysiology of SSc which could be beneficial in treatment of this complex disease with no current therapeutic options.
Project description:Understanding of molecular system how tumor-suppressor p53 selectively activates and/or completes appropriate tumor-suppressor pathway in response to various stresses is still one of the most important issues to be clarified. We analyzed a molecular mechanism for the completion of p53-dependent ribosome stress responsible pathway by miR-101. To this end, expression microarray analyses were conducted in the presence or absence of miR-101. We found that miR-101 induces the activation of p53-dependent G2 phase cell cycle arrest through the increased phosphorylation of ATM, leading to the p53-depdent apoptosis.
Project description:Systemic sclerosis (SSc) or scleroderma is a chronic multiorgan autoimmune disease of unknown etiology characterized by vascular, immunological and fibrotic abnormalities. Several lines of evidence have shown that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) may play a role in the pathophysiology of SSc. VCE-004.8, a CBD aminoquinone derivative, is a dual PPARγ/CB2 that alleviates bleomycin (BLM)-induced skin fibrosis. Herein we report that EHP-101, an oral lipidic formulation of VCE-004.8, prevents skin and lung fibrosis and collagen accumulation in BLM challenged mice. Immunohistochemistry analysis of the skin demonstrate that EHP-101 prevents macrophage infiltration, and the expression of Tenascin C (TNC), VCAM, and the α-smooth muscle actin (SMA). In addition, a reduced expression of vascular CD31, paralleling skin fibrosis, was also prevented by EHP-101. RNAseq analysis in skin biopsies showed a clear effect of EHP-101 in the inflammatory and epithelial-mesenchymal transition transcriptomic signatures. TGF-beta regulated genes such as matrix metalloproteinase-3 (Mmp3), cytochrome b-245 heavy chain (Cybb), lymphocyte antigen 6E (Ly6e), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (Vcam1) and the Integrin alpha-5 (Itga5) were induced in BLM mice and repressed by EHP-101 treatment. We also intersected differentially expressed genes in EHP-101-treated mice with dataset of human scleroderma intrinsic genes and found 53 overlapped genes, including the C-C motif chemokine 2 (Ccl2) and the interleukin 13 receptor subunit alpha 1 (IL-13Ra1) genes, which have been studied as biomarkers of SSc. Altogether the results indicate that this synthetic cannabinoid qualifies as a novel compound for the management and possible treatment of scleroderma and, potentially, other fibrotic diseases.
Project description:In order to identify potential new biomarkers of atherosclerotic plaque composition we performed a large scale analysis of gene expression patterns in human atherosclerotic lesions. Whole genome expression analysis of 101 peripheral plaques identified a robust gene signature (1514 genes) dominated by inflammatory processes, and cholesterol metabolism and storage genes. Specific pathways enriched in this signature included activation of the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, T-cell activation, cholesterol efflux, oxidative stress response, inflammatory cytokine production, vasoconstriction and lysosomal activity. Analysis of gene expression in plaque micro-dissected material revealed that the signature is strongly up-regulated in macrophage-rich regions and down-regulated in regions with high smooth muscle cell content. A smaller qPCR biomarker panel and inflammatory composite score (ICS) were developed to facilitate clinical translation of discoveries from gene expression profiling. We found that ICS correlates with histological features related to plaque vulnerability. In addition, ICS is able to separate groups of plaques obtained from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients undergoing carotid endarerectomy. In summary, we identified a robust mRNA biomarker panel associated with histo-pathological as well as clinical hallmarks of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. This panel may be used as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in clinical setting to evaluate novel anti-atherosclerotic therapies. Total RNA from peripheral plaque (n=101) profiled in the Merck/Agilent 44k v1.1 against a reference pool of total RNA from 7 carotid plaques.
Project description:This program aims at identifying a skin gene signature associated with inflammation pain in rat CGN model The profiling data was analyzed by identifying genes that were up- and down-regulated at selected p value and fold change in the skin of rats treated with CGN (to induce pain) compared to the corresponding non-treated controls.