Cancer, a common malignant disease, is one of the predominant causes of diseases that lead to death. Additionally, cancer is often detected in advanced stages and cannot be radically cured. Consequently, there is an urgent need for reliable and easily detectable markers to identify and monitor cancer onset and progression as early as possible. Our aim was to systematically review the relevant roles of cathepsin K (CTSK) in various possible cancers in existing studies. CTSK, a well-known key enzyme in the bone resorption process and most studied for its roles in the effective degradation of the bone extracellular matrix, is expressed in various organs. Nowadays, CTSK has been involved in various cancers such as prostate cancer, breast cancer, bone cancer, renal carcinoma, lung cancer and other cancers. In addition, CTSK can promote tumor cells proliferation, invasion and migration, and its mechanism may be related to RANK/RANKL, TGF-β, mTOR and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Clinically, some progress has been made with the use of cathepsin K inhibitors in the treatment of certain cancers. This paper reviewed our current understanding of the possible roles of CTSK in various cancers and discussed its potential as a biomarker and/or novel molecular target for various cancers.

Atherosclerosis (AS) is a multifactorial chronic disease with great harm to the health of human being, which is a basic pathogenesis of many cardiovascular diseases and ultimately threatens human life. Abnormal blood lipid level is one of the most common diagnostic indicators of AS in clinic, and lipid metabolism disorder is often observed in patients with AS. Cholesterol is an important lipid in the human body, which is of great significance for maintaining normal life activities. Generally, cholesterol is transported to peripheral tissues by low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and then transported to the liver by high-density lipoprotein (HDL) via its cholesterol reverse transport function, and finally discharged. Under oxidative stress condition, LDL is commonly oxidized to the form ox-LDL, which is ingested by macrophages in large quantities and further forms foam cells, disrupting the normal metabolic process of cholesterol. Importantly, the foam cells are involved in forming atherosclerotic plaques, whose rupture may lead to ischemic heart disease or stroke. Furthermore, ox-LDL could also promote the development of AS by damaging vascular endothelium, promoting the migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells, and activating platelets. Therefore, inhibiting LDL oxidation may be an effective way to improve lipid metabolism and prevent AS. In recent years, increasing studies have shown that herbal medicines have great potentiality in inhibiting LDL oxidation and reducing ox-LDL induced foam cell formation. Accordingly, this paper summarized current research on the inhibitory effects of herbal medicines against LDL oxidation and foam cell formation, and made a brief description of the role of cholesterol and LDL in lipid metabolism disorder and AS pathogenesis. Importantly, it is suggested that herbal medicines could inhibit LDL oxidation and regulate cholesterol homeostasis via downregulation of CD36 and SR-A, whereas upregulation of ABCA1 and ABCG1.

As the common pathological basis of various cardiovascular diseases, the morbidity and mortality of atherosclerosis (AS) have increased in recent years. Unfortunately, there are still many problems in the treatment of AS, and the prevention and treatment of the disease is not ideal. Up to now, the occurrence and development of AS can roughly include endothelial cell dysfunction, vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, inflammation, foam cell production, and neoangiogenesis. Among them, endothelial dysfunction, as an early event of AS, plays a particularly important role in promoting the development of AS. In addition, oxidative stress occurs throughout the causes of endothelial dysfunction. Some previous studies have shown that flavonoids derived from herbal medicines are typical secondary metabolites. Due to its structural presence of multiple active hydroxyl groups, it is able to exert antioxidant activity in diseases. Therefore, in this review, we will search PubMed, Web of Science, Elesvier, Wliey, Springer for relevant literature, focusing on flavonoids extracted from herbal medicines, and summarizing how they can prevent endothelial dysfunction by inhibiting oxidative stress. Meanwhile, in our study, we found that flavonoid represented by quercetin and naringenin showed superior protective effects both in vivo and in vitro, suggesting the potential of flavonoid compounds in the treatment of AS.

Glabridin (Gla) has been reported to have significant effects in scar treatment, and however, the water insolubility of Gla leads to its poor transdermal absorption ability, which affects its bioactivities. Therefore, we attempted to prepare the Gla dissolving microneedles (Gla-MN) to improve the absorbtion of Gla. After investigation of the 3 factors including the needle tip matrix concentration, the prescription concentration of backing material, and the dissolution method of Gla, we finally determined the process parameters of 10% hyaluronic acid (HA) as the needle tip and 5% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the backing, according to which the Gla-MN was prepared with the good characteristics of high hardness, complete appearance and good in vitro dissolution ability. We then loaded Gla onto the microneedles and measured that the average drug loading of Gla-MN was 2.26 ± 0.11 μg/mg and the cumulative transdermal release of Gla-MN was up to 76.9% after 24 h. In addition, Gla-MN had good skin penetration properties, with Gla-MN penetrating at least 4 to 5 layers of parafilm. And the skin basically could return to normal after 4 h of piercing. Importantly, our results showed that Gla-MN had higher transdermal delivery and therapeutic effects against keloid than that of Gla at the same dosage.