Project description:<p><em>Tripterygium wilfordii</em> is a vine used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from the family Celastraceae. The active ingredient celastrol is a friedelane-type pentacyclic triterpenoid, with a putative role as an anti-tumor, immunosuppression, and obesity agent. Here we reported a reference genome assembly of <em>T. wilfordii</em> with high-quality annotation by using a hybrid sequencing strategy, which obtained a 340.12 Mb total genome size, a contig N50 reaching 3.09 Mb, 31593 structure genes, and the repeat percentage was 44.31%. Comparative evolutional analyses showed that <em>T. wilfordii</em> diverged from species of Malpighiales about 102.4 million years ago. In addition, we successfully anchored 91.02% sequences into 23 pseudochromosomes using Hi-C technology and the super-scaffold N50 reached 13.03 Mb. Based on integration of genome, transcriptome and metabolite analyses, as well as in vivo and in vitro enzyme assays of the two CYP450 genes, <em>TwCYP712K1</em> and <em>TwCYP712K2</em> the second biosynthesis step of celastrol was investigated and elucidated. Syntenic analysis revealed that <em>TwCYP712K1</em> and <em>TwCYP712K2</em> derived from a common ancestor. These results have provided insights into further investigating pathways for celastrol and valuable information to aid the conservation of resources and helped us reveal the evolution of Celastrales.</p>
Project description:Tripterygium wilfordii multiglycoside (GTW), extracted and purified from the peeled roots of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook.f. (TwHF), is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine and applied to various autoimmune diseases clinically. However, it has been reported to cause severe liver injury. At present, the mechanism underlying GTW-induced hepatotoxicity remain poorly defined. Here, we evaluated the effects of GTW on mouse liver and elucidated the associated mechanisms via label-free proteomics combined with bioinformatics analysis. Male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into normal group, a low-dose GTW (70 mg/kg) group and a high-dose GTW (140 mg/kg) group. After one-week administration, GTW dose-dependently induced hepatotoxicity. Further analysis showed that GTW could act on the intestinal immune network for IgA production pathway, which plays an important role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and influences the crosstalk between gut and liver. Western blots confirmed that GTW could decrease pIgR protein expression in the liver and ileum, and, as a result, the secretion of IgA into gut lumen was reduced. Further validation showed that intestinal barrier integrity was impaired in GTW-treated mice, promoting bacteria transferring to the liver and triggering proinflammatory response. Our study demonstrated that gut-liver axis may play a vital part in the progression of GTW-induced hepatotoxicity, which provides guidance for basic research and clinical application of GTW.