STUDY ON THE MECHANISM OF ACTION OF GIGANTOL ON DIABETIC RETINA THROUGH MIRNA-21/PI3K/AKT SIGNALING PATHWAY

Yue Yu^1# , Mei Zhang^3# , Xixi Guo^{1, 2#}, Chunxia Li^{1, *} 

¹Shanghai TCM-Integrated Hospital, Shanghai, China - ²Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China - ³The Eye Hospital of Nanjing Medical University is also called the Affiliated Eye 1Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China 

Introduction: to clarify the mechanism of gigantol in preventing and treating diabetic retinopathy.

Materials and methods: in this paper, the high glucose cell model was constructed, and the miRNA-21 was transferred into the high glucose environment cells. CCK8, qRT-PCR and western blot experiments were used for study.

Results: gigantol inhibited AKT phosphorylation, PI3K phosphorylation and VEGFA expression in vitro. Compared with the normal group, the expression level of miRNA-21 in the high glucose environment significantly increased, which promoted the expression levels of P-PI3K, P-AKT and VEGFA. The expression levels of P-PI3K, P-AKT and VEGFA decreased significantly after the intervention of gigantol. The molecular docking results showed that there was potential interaction between gigantol and AKT.

Conclusion: gigantol may play a therapeutic role in diabetic retina through miRNA-21/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.