Phytotherapies in inflammatory bowel disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been considered as a group of heterogeneous intestinal diseases that affects multiple organs outside of the gastrointestinal tract and is due to an uncontrolled inflammatory response mediated by the immune system. The IBD etiology has not been clearly defined, and it is considered as a multifactorial disease. Due to side effects of some conventional therapies, the consumption of complementary and alternative medicines, and in particular, the herbal therapy, more than before is increasing. Herbal therapy results for management of IBD by various mechanisms including leukotriene B4 inhibition, antioxidant activity, immune system regulation of nuclear factor-kappa B, as well as antiplatelet activity are favorable, and no unfortunate events have been yet reported. In this article, we aimed to review and report the herbal therapies established for management of human IBD or evaluated by animal IBD models. Their possible mechanisms of actions are also discussed. KEYWORDS: Herbal medicine; inflammatory bowel disease; medicinal plants; phytotherap

The Potential Mechanism of ZFX Involvement in the Cell Growth

Background:The zinc-finger X linked (ZFX) gene encodes a transcription factor that acts as a regulator of self-renewal of stem cells. Due to the role of ZFX in cell growth, understanding ZFX protein-protein interactions helps to clarify its proper biological functions in signaling pathways. The aim of this study is to define ZFX protein-protein interactions and the role of ZFX in cell growth. Materials and Methods: The PIPs output includes three interacting proteins with ZFX: eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 subunit I(EIF3I), eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 subunit G(EIF3G) and protein nuclear pore and COPII coat complex component homolog isoform 3 (SEC13L1). Results: As a cargo and transmembrane protein interacting with Sec13,eIF3I and eIF3G, ZFX mediates cargo sorting in COPII vesicles at ER exit sites. While traveling to cis-Golgi, eIF3I is phosphorylated by the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). Proteins transport by COPI vesicles to the nucleusouter site layer containing SEC13 via the contribution of microtubules. EIF3G and eIF3I interact with coatomer protein complex subunit beta 2 (COPB2) that helps to enclose ZFX in COPI vesicle. ZFX and eIF3G enter nucleolus where activation of transcription from pre rDNA genes occurs. Conclusion:We proposed a model in which ZFX is involved in cell growth by promoting the transcription of rDNA genes

ZFX Overexpression in Breast Cancer Positively Correlates with Metastasis

Background: As the third most frequent cause of cancer death, breast cancer is a common disease worldwide. Most of the patients are being diagnosed in the stage that conventional treatments are not effective, and invasion and metastases lead to death. Therefore, identification of novel molecular markers to improve early diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of the breast cancer is a necessity. Zinc finger X-linked (ZFX) gene is a member of ZFY family, which they upregulation has been demonstrated in several types of cancer. The aim of this study was to assess ZFX gene expression in Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues of the breast cancer invasive ductal carcinoma and to investigate its correlation with clinicopathological parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 52 tumor and non-tumor breast specimens were evaluated for ZFX gene expression using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Total RNA extraction was performed using RNeasy FFPE kit (Qiagene). complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesis was performed using PrimeScript-RT Master Mix (Takara). The PCR mixture containing SYBR® Premix Ex Taq ™ II (Takara Bio Inc., Otsu, Japan), was run on the Rotor-gene 3000 (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) Results: The ZFX expression increased significantly in breast tumor tissues compared with non-tumor breast tissues. We further showed that there was a positive correlation between the ZFX gene expression level and lymphatic invasion. Conclusion: ZFX might be used as a potential biomarker to monitor breast carcinoma progression. Further studies to determine the mechanism of action of ZFX is needed to unravel the role of this gene in breast cancer pathogenesis