FENGMEI QIAN^1,2, PEIYAO REN², LI ZHAO², DANNA ZHENG², WENFANG HE³, JUAN JIN^3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.8, pp. 1853-1867, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.029353

Abstract Background: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious complication of diabetes with rising prevalence worldwide. We aimed to explore the anti-DN mechanisms of the compound celastrol derived from the medicinal plant Tripterygium wilfordii. Methods: Celastrol-related targets were obtained from Herbal Ingredients’ Targets (HIT) and GeneCards databases. DN-related targets were retrieved from GeneCards, DisGeNET, and Therapeutic Targets Database (TTD). A Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was established using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed using ClusterProfiler. The cytoHubba plugin was used to select… More > Graphic Abstract

Yaru Zhu^1,2,3, Xiujun Zhang¹, Yansheng Zhang³, Shiyou Lü^1,4,*, Changfu Li^1,3,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.91, No.2, pp. 279-291, 2022, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.017625

Abstract Tripterygium wilfordii has been renowned mostly because of the anticancer effects of its root extracts, which is partly ascribed to the presence of celastrol, a pentacyclic triterpenoid, as one of the main active components. Celastrol also has recently been reported as an effective prodrug in the treatment of obesity. Despite the promising activities, the pathway leading to celastrol biosynthesis, especially cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme(s) that occur in its downstream steps, are largely unknown. This study conducted a comparative analysis of the T. wilfordii transcriptome derived from its root and leaf tissues. Differential gene expression analysis identified a number of root-specific… More >