Project description:Osteoarthritis (OA) is a complex degenerative joint and multi-factorial disease. Developing new targeting strategies that can be used to understand its molecular mechanisms is critical owing to the difficulty in treating OA. Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae present high therapeutic value; however, the presence of various active compounds and the multi-factorial risk factors for OA renders the precise mechanisms of action unclear. We screened the key mechanisms of action of P. brevitarsis seulensis larvae aqueous extract (PBSL) and its compounds using systematic transcriptome analysis. Major mechanisms and transcription factors of PBSL were analyzed by profiling gene expression changes in interleukin (IL)-1β-induced human chondrosarcoma cell (SW1353) treated with PBSL. Furthermore, an in vitro assay was perfomed to validate the efficacy of the novel mechanism and targets of PBSL. PBSL exerted anti-inflammatory effects on SW1353 cells by regulating many molecular pathways. The IL-6/JAK/STAT3 pathway was significantly downregulated by PBSL, and STAT3 was identified as a major transcription factor regulating PBSL-induced target gene expression. Furthermore, we found that among the six PBSL compounds, the major compound was regulated by the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 pathway. Our findings reinforce the idea that inhibiting the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 pathway is a therapeutic target for treating OA, providing potential novel mechanisms and transcription factors for PBSL and its active compounds against OA.
Project description:Larvae of the pest Protaetia brevitarsis are used to treat infections in traditional Chinese medicine. However, genomic information about this non-model species is currently lacking. To better understand the fundamental biology of this non-model species, its transcriptome was obtained using next generation sequencing and then analyzed. A total of 7.62 Gb of clean reads were obtained, which were assembled into 169,087 transcripts corresponding to 142,000 annotated unigenes. These unigenes were functionally classified according to Gene Ontology (GO), euKaryotic Ortholog Groups of proteins (KOG), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) annotations. A total of 41,921 unigenes were assigned to 56 GO terms, 21,454 unigenes were divided among 26 KOG categories, and 16,368 unigenes were assigned to 32 KEGG pathways. In addition, 19,144 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified. Furthermore, several kinds of natural antimicrobial peptides and proteins, 4 histones with potential antimicrobial activity, and 41 potential antimicrobial peptide sequences were identified. These data are the first reported whole transcriptome sequence of P. brevitarsis larvae, which represents a valuable genomic resource for studying this species, thus promoting the utilization of its medical potential.