Anti-CASP3 (aa 170-175) polyclonal antibody

Exencephaly/anencephaly is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality and the most extreme open neural tube defect with no current treatments and limited mechanistic understanding. We hypothesized that exencephaly leads to a local neurodegenerative process in the brain exposed to the amniotic fluid as well as diffuse degeneration in other encephalic areas and the spinal cord. To evaluate the consequences of in utero neural tissue exposure, brain and spinal cord samples from E17 exencephalic murine fetuses (maternal intraperitoneal administration of valproic acid at E8) were analyzed and compared to controls and saline-injected shams (n = 11/group). Expression of apoptosis and senescence genes (p53, p21, p16, Rbl2, Casp3, Casp9) was determined by qRT-PCR and protein expression analyzed by western blot. Apoptosis was measured by TUNEL assay and PI/AV flow cytometry. Valproic acid at E8 induced exencephaly in 22% of fetuses. At E17 the fetuses exhibited the characteristic absence of cranial bones. The brain structures from exencephalic fetuses demonstrated a loss of layers in cortical regions and a complete loss of structural organization in the olfactory bulb, hippocampus, dental gyrus and septal cortex. E17 fetuses had reduced expression of NeuN, GFAP and Oligodendrocytes in the brain with primed microglia. Intrinsic apoptotic activation (p53, Caspase9 and 3) was upregulated and active Caspase3 localized to the layer of brain exposed to the amniotic fluid. Senescence via p21-Rbl2 was increased in the brain and in the spinal cord at the lamina I-II of the somatosensory dorsal horn. The current study characterizes CNS alterations in murine exencephaly and demonstrates that degeneration due to intrinsic apoptosis and senescence occurs in the directly exposed brain but also remotely in the spinal cord.

Background: In this study, the network pharmacological methods were used to predict the target of active components of Chaihu Lizhong Tang (CHLZT) in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Method: The active components of "CHLZT", their targets, and NAFLD related targets were screened by multiple databases, and the potential targets of "CHLZT" in the treatment of NAFLD were predicted. The active component-target network of "CHLZT" was constructed by Cytoscape software. The potential target of "CHLZT" for the treatment of NAFLD constructed protein-protein interaction (PPI) network in the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes Database (STRING). The hub genes of "CHLZT" in the treatment of NAFLD were screened by network topological parameters, and the results were verified by molecular docking. "ClusterProfiler" in R was used for Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Results: OB >= 30 % and DL >= 0.18 were selected as the screening criteria of active components. A total of 83 active components and 456 targets were selected. Based on the evaluation of topological parameters of degree network, five hub genes for interaction with "CHLZT" therapy for NAFLD were screened, that is, AKT1, ALB, IL6, EGFR, and CASP3. The results of molecular docking showed that the active components in "CHLZT" had a good binding ability with the key targets. The enrichment analysis results showed that the treatment of NAFLD with "CHLZT" mainly involved in cofactor binding, protease binding, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, and IL-17 signaling pathway, which mediated the potential mechanism of "CHLZT" intervention in NAFLD. Conclusion: The molecular mechanism of "CHLZT" in the treatment of NAFLD indicated the synergistic features of multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway of traditional Chinese medicine, which provided an important scientific basis for further elucidating the mechanism of "CHLZT" in the treatment of NAFLD.