Snake has been used for centuries as a traditional Chinese medicine, especially for therapeutic treatment for inflammatory diseases; however, its mechanisms of action and active constituents remain controversial. In our study, a tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) selective binding peptide, Hydrostatin-SN1 (H-SN1), which was screened from a Hydrophis cyanocinctus venom gland T7 phage display library, was shown to exhibit significant anti-inflammatory activity in vitro and in vivo. As a TNFR1 antagonist, it reduced cytotoxicity mediated by TNF-α in L929 fibroblasts and effectively inhibited the combination between TNF-α with TNFR1 in surface plasmon resonance analysis. H-SN1 was also shown to suppress TNFR1–associated signaling pathways as it minimized TNF-α-induced NF-кB and MAPK activation in HEK293 embryonic kidney and HT29 adenocarcinoma cell lines. We next determined the effect of H-SN1 in vivo using a murine model of acute colitis induced by dextran sodium sulfate, demonstrating that H-SN1 lowered the clinical parameters of acute colitis including the disease activity index and histologic scores. H-SN1 also inhibited TNF/TNFR1 downstream targets at both mRNA and protein levels. These results indicate that H-SN1 might represent a suitable candidate for use in the treatment of TNF-α-associated inflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases.

Cannabidiol (CBD), a primary bioactive phytocannabinoid extracted from hemp, is reported to possess potent anti-tumorigenic activity in multiple cancers. However, the effects of CBD on bladder cancer (BC) and the underlying molecular mechanisms are rarely reported. Here, several experiments proved that CBD promoted BC cells (T24, 5637, and UM-UC-3) death. For example, T24 cells were treated with 12 µM CBD for 48 h, flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that early and late apoptotic cells were accounted for by 49.91%, indicating CBD enhanced cell apoptosis ability. To deeper explore molecular mechanisms, the CBD-treated T24 cell transcriptome libraries were established. KEGG analysis implied that the significantly changed genes were enriched in the PI3K/Akt pathway. qRT-PCR and Western blot assays verified that CBD regulated BC cells growth and migration and induced apoptosis by inactivating the PI3K/Akt pathway. Meanwhile, the developed chitosan to wrap CBD-loaded PLGA nanoparticles can significantly enhance the adhesion of the material to the mouse bladder wall, and the binding efficiency of mucin to chitosan-PLGA nanoparticles reached 97.04% ± 1.90%. In summary, this work demonstrates that CBD may become a novel reliable anticancer drug and the developed intravesical adhesion system is expected to turn into a potential means of BC chemotherapy drug delivery.