This research aims to synthesize lipophilic berberine derivatives and evaluate their antiglioma effects on C6 and U87 cells. The introduction of substituents with various carbon chain lengths on C-13- or C-9-O-position of the berberine scaffold led to the discovery of several potent inhibitors against glioblastoma cells. Derivatives substituted with the carbon chains of moderate length (twelve carbons) displayed improved lipophilicity and the strongest inhibitory effects. Several compounds presented dose-dependent repression against proliferation (IC50, 1.12–6.12 μM) and blocked migration and invasion by over 60% at lower dose levels. Furthermore, preliminary research about the underlying mechanism for the enhanced antiglioma ability indicated that these analogues preferentially localized into mitochondria, inducing the up-regulation of ROS production. Overall, these compounds represent promising candidates to combat glioblastoma and highlight new insight into the antiglioma therapy through interaction with mitochondria.

•Polysaccharide sulfates rich in galactoses inhibited H. pylori adhering to RBCs and AGS cells.•A higher amount of 3-O-linked sulfates and galactoses promoted inhibition of bacterial adhesion.•The inhibition of bacterial adhesion was caused by the binding of sulfates to H. pylori.•Nylon membranes were used in thin-layer chromatography to immobilize sulfates.In treatments of Helicobacter pylori infections, recrudescences were common because of an unfavorable bacterial eradication rate due to the ever increasing resistance to antibiotics. In this study, we chose pectin, guar gum and chitosan to synthesize their sulfates to inhibit adhesions of H. pylori and thus enhance the eradication rate. The introduction of sulfates was characterized using FT-IR and elemental analysis. Data from zeta-potential, hydrodynamic diameter, hydrolysis and rheological property demonstrated the sulfates were physicochemically stable. Inhibition assay of hemagglutination and adhesion indicated sulfates prevented H. pylori from adhering to erythrocytes and AGS cells. In binding assay, affinities of sulfates to H. pylori suggested sulfates could compete with target cells for bacteria and moderated the bacterial adhesion to hosts. A higher content of galactoses and 2,3-O-linked sulfates benefited this action. Thus polysaccharide sulfates can serve as potential adjuvants to raise the bacterial eradication rate by inhibiting adhesions of H. pylori.

ObjectiveWith the notorious reputation of the vicious invasion, the bladder cancer is the most common malignant tumor of the urinary system. Inhibiting invasion through microtubule dynamics interruption has emerged as an important treatment of bladder cancer. Here we investigated the role of the cyclic adenosine monophosphate/protein kinase A (cAMP/PKA) pathway in human bladder cancer cells invasion.Materials and methodsWith or without the treatment of various cAMP elevators, we assessed invasive and migrated capabilities of T24 and UM-UC-3, two high-grade invasive bladder cancer cell lines, using matrigel transwell inserts assay and scratch wound healing assay. The microtubule (MT) dynamics were examined by immunofluorescence and immunoblotting. Microtubule-Associated Protein 4 (MAP4) was silenced to investigate its role in tumor invasion. We also analyzed gene expression of MAP4 in 34 patients with bladder cancer using immunohistochemical staining assay. The interaction between PKA and MAP4 was examined by co-immunoprecipitation.ResultsWe used cAMP elevators and small interfering RNA of MAP4 here, found that both of them can potently inhibit the invasion and the migration of bladder cancer cells by disrupting microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton. Consistently, the bladder cancer grade is positively correlated with the protein level of MAP4. Furthermore, we found that cAMP/PKA signaling can disrupt MT cytoskeleton by the phosphorylation of MAP4.ConclusionOur results indicated that the cAMP/PKA signaling pathway might inhibit bladder cancer cell invasion by targeting MAP4-dependent microtubule dynamics, which could be exploited for the therapy of invasive bladder cancer.

In this work, retinal penetration of fluorescein was achieved in vitro by covalent attachment of taurine to fluorescein, yielding the F–Tau conjugate. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) were used to confirm the successful synthesis of F–Tau. The cellular uptake of F–Tau in adult retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19) and human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (hRMECs) was visualized via confocal scanning microscopy. The results indicated an improvement of solubility and a reduction of logP of F–Tau compared with fluorescein. As compared with fluorescein, F–Tau showed little toxicity, and was retained longer by cells in uptake experiments. F–Tau also displayed higher transepithelial permeabilities than fluorescein in ARPE-19 and hRMECs monolayer cells (P<0.05). These results showed that taurine may be a useful ligand for targeting small-molecule hydrophobic pharmaceuticals into the retina.A taurine conjugated fluorescein (F–Tau) was synthesized and its in vitro retina-targeted ability was evaluated compared with fluorescein. Longer cellular retention time was showed in cellular uptake assays and higher transepithelial permeabilities were exhibited in transwell experiments, indicating taurine has the potential to be a promising retina-targeted ligand. Download full-size image

Recent studies have shown that targeting doxorubicin to mitochondria of tumor cells can bypass the multi-drug resistance problem and inhibit tumor growth. We previously discovered that the C-9th and C-13th position-alkylated berberine derivatives possess improved mitochondria-targeting activity compared to berberine. Therefore, we hypothesize that these alkylated berberine derivatives could be utilized as potential mitochondrial-targeting ligands by inserting the alkyl chain into the liposomal bilayer membrane during the preparation of liposomes. In this research, a berberine derivate (a 16-carbon aliphatic chain was introduced to the C-9th of berberine, 9-C16 berberine) was employed to prepare mitochondria-targeting doxorubicin-loaded folic acid-conjugated polyethylene glycol(PEGylated) liposomes (MT-FOL-PLS). The results of in vitro cytotoxicity and apoptosis-inducing studies revealed that MT-FOL-PLS showed the strongest cytotoxicity and apoptosis-inducing effects in drug resistant MCF-7/adr cells in comparison with free doxorubicin and regular liposomal doxorubicin. MT-FOL-PLS enhanced cellular uptake of doxorubicin up to 15-fold compared to free doxorubicin, and targeted doxorubicin to mitochondria. In vivo and ex vivo drug distribution studies showed that MT-FOL-PLS increased the drug distribution in tumor and the administration of MT-FOL-PLS to resistant MCF-7/adr cell mouse xenografts stopped tumor growth. Our results confirmed that alkylated berberines can be exploited as mitochondrial-targeting ligands to overcome cancer multi-drug resistance, further advancing the research on active targeting of liposome delivery systems in the treatment of resistant cancer.