Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Punicalagin is a prominent polyphenol in pomegranate juice that protects cultured syncytiotrophoblasts from stress-induced apoptosis. Here, we test the hypothesis that punicalagin has this effect by inhibiting the mTOR kinase pathway to enhance autophagic turnover and limit apoptosis in cultured primary human syncytiotrophoblasts. In syncytiotrophoblasts, starvation, rapamycin, or punicalagin all decreased the expression of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6, a downstream target of the mTOR kinase, and of the autophagy markers, LC3-II and p62. In contrast, in the presence of bafilomycin, an inhibitor of late stages of autophagy and degradation in the autophagolysosome, syncytiotrophoblasts exposed to starvation, rapamycin, or punicalagin all showed increased levels of LC3-II and p62. The number of LC3-II punctae also increased in punicalagin-treated syncytiotrophoblasts exposed to chloroquine, another inhibitor of autophagic degradation, and punicalagin increased the number of lysosomes. The apoptosis-reducing effect of punicalagin was attenuated by inhibition of autophagy using bafilomycin or knockdown of the autophagy related gene, ATG16L1. Collectively, these data support the hypothesis that punicalagin modulates the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis to promote survival in cultured syncytiotrophoblasts.
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PMID:Punicalagin promotes autophagy to protect primary human syncytiotrophoblasts from apoptosis. 2665 60

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial, food-borne pathogen of humans, can contaminate raw fruits and vegetables. While physical and chemical methods are available to control S. aureus, scientists are searching for inhibitory phytochemicals from plants. One promising compound from pomegranate is punicalagin, a natural antibiotic. To get a broader understanding of the inhibitory effect of punicalagin on S. aureus growth, high-throughput mass spectrometry and quantitative isobaric labeling was used to investigate the proteome of S. aureus after exposure to a sublethal dose of punicalagin. Nearly half of the proteins encoded by the small genome were interrogated, and nearly half of those exhibited significant changes in accumulation. Punicalagin treatment altered the accumulation of proteins and enzymes needed for iron acquisition, and it altered amounts of enzymes for glycolysis, citric acid cycling, protein biosynthesis, and purine and pyrimidine biosynthesis. Punicalagin treatment also induced an SOS cellular response to damaged DNA. Transcriptional comparison of marker genes shows that the punicalagin-induced iron starvation and SOS responses resembles those produced by EDTA and ciprofloxacin. These results show that punicalagin adversely alters bacterial growth by disrupting iron homeostasis and that it induces SOS, possibly through DNA biosynthesis inhibition.
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PMID:Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of Staphylococcus aureus Treated With Punicalagin, a Natural Antibiotic From Pomegranate That Disrupts Iron Homeostasis and Induces SOS. 2952 70