Study reveals the mechanism of Tripterygium wilfordii inhibiting extensive gene transcription

Researchers from Shanghai Institute of pharmaceutical research, Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted in-depth analysis on a kind of traditional Chinese medicine with a long and widely used history, and found its molecular mechanism of inhibiting extensive gene transcription, which is of great significance for the clinical use of this medicine The findings are published in the journal PLoS One The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of science and technology of China, major national science and technology projects and Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Yu Qiang, a researcher from Shanghai Institute of pharmaceutical research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the research He graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai in his early years In 2002, he returned to China under the "hundred talents plan" of Chinese Academy of Sciences and was employed by Shanghai Institute of pharmaceutical research, Chinese Academy of Sciences He was mainly engaged in the research of cell biology and chemical biology of tumor growth mechanism, the screening and development of anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory drugs, and the activity of Chinese herbal medicine The discovery of components and the study of mechanism In 2003, he was awarded as the outstanding discipline leader of Shanghai Tripterygium wilfordii is a traditional Chinese medicine with a long and widely used history Triptolide (TPL) is one of the main active components of triptolide In recent years, a large number of in vivo and in vitro studies have proved that triptolide has good antitumor activity for a variety of cancers, such as leukemia, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and lung cancer Recent studies have found that TPL not only specifically affects some proteins and signaling pathways, but also inhibits a wide range of gene transcription, but its mechanism remains to be further clarified In this paper, the molecular mechanism of triptolide inhibiting extensive gene transcription was studied Triptolide inhibited gene transcription by promoting phosphorylation of rpb1, the largest and most important functional subunit in RNA polymerase II, and subsequent ubiquitination and degradation of rpb1 Ptef-b, the upstream kinase of rpb1, plays a positive role in triptolide induced phosphorylation of rpb1 Triptolide can also induce DNA damage These studies suggest that triptolide can activate P-TEFb, phosphorylate rpb1 and degrade rpb1 by causing DNA damage of cells, thus inhibiting broad-spectrum gene transcription Triptolide is a compound with many biological activities It is of great significance to clarify its molecular mechanism of action for the rational use of triptolide and Tripterygium Wilfordii in the future.