Rattus norvegicus strain:SD Raw sequence reads

Astaxanthin is a kind of xanthophyll carotenoid which can be obtained from Haematococcus pluvialis and sorts of seafood. It has been widely reported that AST functions in reducing the oxidative stress induced by diabetes mellitus. But, the systematic overview of the biological basis is not clear. In this work, we collected 120 targets of AST from BATMAN, Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) and STITCH databases. The putative diabetes related 1830 targets were collected from Therapeutic Target Database (TTD) and GeneCards databases. Then we built the diabetic rat model and confirmed that AST functioned in reducing total cholesterol and triglycerides levels, alleviating islet cell degeneration and vacuolation, and improving antioxidant status by up-regulating SOD activity and down-regulating GSH and MDA level. The differential gene expression pattern was examined using RNA-Seq analysis. Combining with the prediction and RNA-Seq results, three AST intersecting targets, Col5A1, Nqo1 and Notch2 were identified. Docking analysis of AST towards Nqo1 and Notch2 was operated with SwissDock server, respectively. The AST-targets-pathway networks were built. Taken together, AST is predicted to target a variety of targets and pathways to form a network of systemic pharmacological effects to reduce the oxidative stress in DM patients.