Anxiolytic-like effects and toxicological studies of Brickellia cavanillesii (Cass.) A. Gray in experimental mice models

Himalayan flora: targeting various molecular pathways in lung cancer

The fatal amplification of lung cancer across the globe and the limitations of current treatment strategies emphasize the necessity for substitute therapeutics. The incorporation of phyto-derived components in chemo treatment holds promise in addressing those challenges. Despite the significant progressions in lung cancer therapeutics, the complexities of molecular mechanism and pathways underlying this disease remain inadequately understood, necessitating novel biomarker targeting. The Himalayas, abundant in diverse plant varieties with established chemotherapeutic potential, presents a promising avenue for investigating potential cures for lung carcinoma. The vast diversity of phytocompounds herein can be explored for targeting the disease. This review delves into the multifaceted targets of lung cancer and explores the established phytochemicals with their specific molecular targets. It emphasizes comprehending the intricate pathways that govern effective therapeutic interventions for lung cancer. Through this exploration of Himalayan flora, this review seeks to illuminate potential breakthroughs in lung cancer management using natural compounds. The amalgamation of Himalayan plant-derived compounds with cautiously designed combined therapeutic approaches such as nanocarrier-mediated drug delivery and synergistic therapy offers an opportunity to redefine the boundaries of lung cancer treatment by reducing the drug resistance and side effects and enabling an effective targeted delivery of drugs. Furthermore, additional studies are obligatory to understand the possible derivation of natural compounds used in current lung cancer treatment from plant species within the Himalayan region.

Medicinal Importance, Pharmacological Activities and Analytical Aspects of a Flavonoid Glycoside 'Nicotiflorin' in the Medicine

BACKGROUND

Herbal products are derived from different natural sources, mainly used as a source of food material and medicine in the health sectors since ancient times. Herbal products have gained popularity in modern medicine due to their beneficial health properties and pharmacological activities. Flavonoids are an important class of secondary metabolites found to be present in medicinal plants and their derived products. Flavonoids have been known for their anti-allergic, anti-bacterial, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-proliferative, anti-mutagenic, antithrombotic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-oxidant and hepatoprotective activities in the medicine. Nicotiflorin is a flavonoidal class phytochemical, found in medicinal plants, including Traditional Chinese medicine.

METHODS

Scientific data on the medicinal importance and pharmacological activities of nicotiflorin have been collected and analyzed in the present work in order to know the therapeutic importance of nicotiflorin in medicine. Scientific data have been collected from Google, Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed and Scopus and analyzed in the present work. Analytical techniques data of separation, isolation and identification of nicotiflorin have also been collected and presented in the current work. Further biological importance of flavonoidal class phytochemicals was also discussed in the present work to understand the biological importance of nicotiflorin in medicine as it belongs to the flavonoid class.

RESULTS

Scientific data analysis revealed the therapeutic importance and pharmacological activities of nicotiflorin. Nicotiflorin has significant biological potential against coronavirus, ischemia, renal impairment, hepatic complication, memory dysfunction and myocardial infarction. The biological potential of nicotiflorin against α-glucosidase and α-amylase enzymes, multiple myeloma cells and insulin secretion has also been discussed in the present work. Analytical data revealed the significance of modern analytical tools in medicine for the isolation, separation and quantification of nicotiflorin.

CONCLUSION

Scientific data analysis of different research works revealed the biological importance and therapeutic potential of nicotiflorin in medicine.

Flavonoid-Like Components of Peanut Stem and Leaf Extract Promote Sleep by Decreasing Neuronal Excitability

SCOPE

Peanut stem and leaf (PSL), a traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used as a dietary supplement to improve sleep quality; however, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Here, the study aims to determine whether active compounds in PSL extract exert their effects by mediating neuronal excitability.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Aqueous PSL extract (500 mg kg^-1 BW) increases the duration of total sleep (TS), slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) in BALB/c mice after 7 and 14 continuous days of intragastric administration. Two PSL extract components with flavonoid-like structures: 4',7-di-O-methylnaringenin (DMN, 61 µg kg^-1 BW) and 2'-O-methylisoliquiritigenin (MIL, 12 µg kg^-1 BW), show similar effects on sleep in BALB/c mice. Moreover, incubation with DMN (50 µM) and MIL (50 µM) acutely reduces voltage-gated sodium and potassium currents and suppresses the firing of evoked action potential in mouse cortical neurons, indicating the inhibition on neuronal excitability. Meanwhile, RNA-seq analysis predicts the potential regulation of voltage-gated channels, which is according with the molecular docking simulation that both MIL and DMN can bind to voltage gated sodium channels 1.2 (Na_v 1.2).

CONCLUSIONS

DMN and MIL are the active ingredients of PSL that improve sleep quality, suggesting that PSL promotes sleep by regulating the excitability of neurons.

Emerging role of phytochemicals in targeting predictive, prognostic, and diagnostic biomarkers of lung cancer

Lung-cancer is the foremost cause of cancer in humans worldwide, of which 80-85% cases are composed of non-small cell lung carcinoma. All treatment decisions depend on the pattern of biomarkers selection to enhance the response to the targeted therapies. Although advanced treatments are available for lung-cancer, the disease treatment remains not adequate. There are several synthetic chemotherapeutic agents available for the treatment of lung cancer. However, due to their toxic effect, survival rate is still 15-18%. Besides, medicinal plants are a huge reservoir of natural products that provide protective effects against lung cancer. Likewise, successful studies of potential phytochemicals in targeting lung-cancer biomarkers have created a novel paradigm for the discovery of potent drugs against lung-cancer. Hence, to defeat severe toxicity and resistance towards the synthetic drugs, detailed studies are required regarding the available phytochemicals and targets responsible for the treatment of lung-cancer. The present review provides a comprehensive information about the lung-cancer biomarkers under the classification of predictive, prognostic, and diagnostic type. Moreover, it discusses and enlists the phytochemicals with mode of action against different biomarkers, effective doses in in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies, the limitations associated with usage of phytochemicals as a drug to prevent/cure lung-cancer and the latest techniques employed to overcome such issues.

Antidiabetic effect of Cordia morelosana, chemical and pharmacological studies

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE

CORDIA MORELOSANA: Standley (Boraginaceae) is commonly used in folk medicine for the treatment of diarrhoea, kidney inflammation, diabetes, lung pain, bronchitis, asthma, hoarseness, cough and fever.

AIM

Current work was conducted to develop a bio-guided isolation of antidiabetic compounds from ethanolic extract of Cordia morelosana (EECm).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The phytochemical bio-guided study was conducted by successive chromatographic techniques, and isolated compounds were characterized by 1D and 2D-NMR experiments. The in vivo antihyperglycemic and antidiabetic activities of EECm (100 mg/kg), and methyl rosmarinate (MR, 50 mg/kg) were determined on normoglycemic and diabetic murine models. Additionally, the in vitro activity was conducted to determine α-glucosidase inhibitory effect, and PPARs, GLUT4 and FATP expression on 3T3-L1 cells by RT-PCR. Acute and sub-chronic toxicological studies for EECm were conducted on rats, following the OECD guidelines (No. 420 and 407).

RESULTS

EECm promotes significant α-glucosidase inhibition (55.6%) at 1 mg/kg respect to the control. Also, EECm (100 mg/kg) showed significant antihyperglycemic effect on oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and in non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes (NIDD) model, had antidiabetic activity (p < 0.001) compared to controls. The bio-guided isolation allowed to obtain four known compounds described as rosmarinic acid (RA), methyl rosmarinate (MR), nicotiflorine and 1-O-methyl-scyllo-inositol. On the other hand, MR showed significant antidiabetic and anthiyperglycemic activities (p < 0.05), and overexpression of PPARγ, PPARα, GLUT-4 and FATP than control. Docking studies were conducted with PPARγ and PPARα, showing interesting binding mode profile on those targets. Finally, EECm displayed a LD₅₀ > 2000 mg/kg and sub-chronic toxicological study reveals no toxic signs in animals tested compared to control.

CONCLUSION

EECm showed significant antihyperglycemic and antidiabetic actions being RA and MR the main antidiabetic metabolites.

Acacetin Attenuates Renal Damage-Induced by Ischemia-Reperfusion with Declining Apoptosis and Oxidative Stress in Mice

Background:

Renal ischemia-reperfusion disturbs both the function and the histology of this organ. Acacetin (Aca) is a natural flavonoid that is effective for relief of many diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the impacts of Aca on renal ischemia-reperfusion process in mice.

Methods:

In total, 84 male Balb/cmice divided into 12 groups and were administrated intraperitoneally for 4 days with or without surgery to dimethyl sulfoxide 0.01% or Aca (10, 25, and 50 mg/kg) as Control, control Acas, sham, sham Acas groups. Ischemia-reperfusion without or with Aca (10, 25, and 50 mg/kg) treatments were the other groups. Parameters related to the function and the histology of the kidneys were evaluated and statistically analyzed from kidney and blood serum samples in the respect of the groups.

Results:

In ischemia-reperfusion and ischemia-reperfusion + Aca (10 mg/kg) groups, there were significantly increased in urea, creatinine, malondialdehyde (MDA), and apoptosis rate, whereas total antioxidant capacity decreased compared to the control and sham and ischemia-reperfusion + Aca (25 and 50 mg/kg) (P < 0.05). The histopathology alteration was seen in the ischemia-reperfusion group than the others (P < 0.01). Moreover, there was a significant difference between ischemia-reperfusion + Aca (25 and50 mg/kg) groups than ischemia-reperfusion + Aca (10 mg/kg) one (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

The recovery effect of Aca was offered on renal ischemia-reperfusion damage in a dose-dependent manner in mice, showing by kidney histopathology and functional criteria improvements. The attributed mechanism for this impression would be the antioxidant property of Aca, decreasing both MDA levels and apoptosis rate in kidney tissue.

Functional mechanism of tracheal relaxation, antiasthmatic, and toxicological studies of 6-hydroxyflavone

Previously, we described tracheal rat rings relaxation by several flavonoids, being 6-hydroxyflavone (6-HOF) the most active derivative of the series. Thus, its mechanism of action was determined in an ex vivo tracheal rat ring bioassay. The anti-asthmatic effect was assayed in in vivo OVAlbumin (OVA)-sensitized guinea pigs. Finally, the toxicological profile of 6-HOF was studied based on Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines with modifications. 6-HOF-induced relaxation appears to be related with receptor-operated calcium channel and voltage-operated calcium channel blockade as the main mechanism of action, and also through the production of relaxant second messengers NO and cGMP. Molecular docking supports that 6-HOF acts as calcium channel blocker and by activation of nitric oxide synthase. In addition, the in vivo anti-asthmatic experiments demonstrate the dose-dependent significant anti-allergic effect of 6-HOF induced by OVA, with best activity at 50 /kg. Finally, toxicological studies determined a LD50 > 2,000 mg/kg and, after 28 day of treatment with 6-HOF (50 mg/kg) by intragastric route, mice did not exhibit evidence of any significant toxicity. In conclusion, experiments showed that 6-HOF exerts significant relaxant activity through calcium channel blockade, and possibly, by NO/cGMP-system stimulation on rat trachea, which interferes with the contraction mechanism of smooth muscle cells in the airways. In addition, the flavonoid shows potential anti-asthmatic properties in an anti-allergic pathway. Furthermore, because the pharmacological and safety evidence, we propose this flavonoid as lead for the development of a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of asthma and related respiratory diseases.