Comparison between tumors in plants and human beings: Mechanisms of tumor development and therapy with secondary plant metabolites

Integrated metagenomics and metabolomics analysis reveals changes in the microbiome and metabolites in the rhizosphere soil of Fritillaria unibracteata

Fritillaria unibracteata (FU) is a renowned herb in China that requires strict growth conditions in its cultivation process. During this process, the soil microorganisms and their metabolites may directly affect the growth and development of FU, for example, the pathogen infection and sipeimine production. However, few systematic studies have reported the changes in the microbiome and metabolites during FU cultivation thus far. In this work, we simultaneously used metagenomics and metabolomics technology to monitor the changes in microbial communities and metabolites in the rhizosphere of FU during its cultivation for one, two, and three years. Moreover, the interaction between microorganisms and metabolites was investigated by co-occurrence network analysis. The results showed that the microbial composition between the three cultivation-year groups was significantly different (2020-2022). The dominant genera changed from Pseudomonas and Botrytis in CC1 to Mycolicibacterium and Pseudogymnoascus in CC3. The relative abundances of beneficial microorganisms decreased, while the relative abundances of harmful microorganisms showed an increasing trend. The metabolomics results showed that significant changes of the of metabolite composition were observed in the rhizosphere soil, and the relative abundances of some beneficial metabolites showed a decreasing trend. In this study, we discussed the changes in the microbiome and metabolites during the three-year cultivation of FU and revealed the relationship between microorganisms and metabolites. This work provides a reference for the efficient and sustainable cultivation of FU.

Nature-inspired Enzyme engineering and sustainable catalysis: biochemical clues from the world of plants and extremophiles

The use of enzymes to accelerate chemical reactions for the synthesis of industrially important products is rapidly gaining popularity. Biocatalysis is an environment-friendly approach as it not only uses non-toxic, biodegradable, and renewable raw materials but also helps to reduce waste generation. In this context, enzymes from organisms living in extreme conditions (extremozymes) have been studied extensively and used in industries (food and pharmaceutical), agriculture, and molecular biology, as they are adapted to catalyze reactions withstanding harsh environmental conditions. Enzyme engineering plays a key role in integrating the structure-function insights from reference enzymes and their utilization for developing improvised catalysts. It helps to transform the enzymes to enhance their activity, stability, substrates-specificity, and substrate-versatility by suitably modifying enzyme structure, thereby creating new variants of the enzyme with improved physical and chemical properties. Here, we have illustrated the relatively less-tapped potentials of plant enzymes in general and their sub-class of extremozymes for industrial applications. Plants are exposed to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses due to their sessile nature, for which they have developed various mechanisms, including the production of stress-response enzymes. While extremozymes from microorganisms have been extensively studied, there are clear indications that plants and algae also produce extremophilic enzymes as their survival strategy, which may find industrial applications. Typical plant enzymes, such as ascorbate peroxidase, papain, carbonic anhydrase, glycoside hydrolases and others have been examined in this review with respect to their stress-tolerant features and further improvement via enzyme engineering. Some rare instances of plant-derived enzymes that point to greater exploration for industrial use have also been presented here. The overall implication is to utilize biochemical clues from the plant-based enzymes for robust, efficient, and substrate/reaction conditions-versatile scaffolds or reference leads for enzyme engineering.

Data Science and Plant Metabolomics

The study of plant metabolism is one of the most complex tasks, mainly due to the huge amount and structural diversity of metabolites, as well as the fact that they react to changes in the environment and ultimately influence each other. Metabolic profiling is most often carried out using tools that include mass spectrometry (MS), which is one of the most powerful analytical methods. All this means that even when analyzing a single sample, we can obtain thousands of data. Data science has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of plant metabolism. This review demonstrates that machine learning, network analysis, and statistical modeling are some techniques being used to analyze large quantities of complex data that provide insights into plant development, growth, and how they interact with their environment. These findings could be key to improving crop yields, developing new forms of plant biotechnology, and understanding the relationship between plants and microbes. It is also necessary to consider the constraints that come with data science such as quality and availability of data, model complexity, and the need for deep knowledge of the subject in order to achieve reliable outcomes.

On the human health benefits of microalgal phytohormones: An explorative in silico analysis

Phytohormones represent a group of secondary metabolites with different chemical structures, in which belong auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, or brassinosteroids. In higher plants, they cover active roles in growth or defense function, while their potential benefits for human health protection were noted for some phytohormones and little explored for many others. In this study, we developed a target fishing strategy on fifty-three selected naturally occurring phytohormones covering different families towards proteins involved in key cellular functions related to human metabolism and health protection/disease. This in silico analysis strategy aims to screen the potential human health-driven bioactivity of more than fifty phytohormones through the analysis of their interactions with specific targets. From this analysis, twenty-eight human targets were recovered. Some targets e.g., the proteins mitochondrial glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUD1) or nerve growth factor (NGF) bound many phytohormones, highlighting their involvement in amino acid metabolism and/or in the maintenance or survival of neurons. Conversely, some phytohormones specifically interacted with some proteins, e.g., SPRY domain-containing SOCS box protein 2 (SPSB2) or Inosine-5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase 1 (IMPDH1), both involved in human immune response. They were then investigated with a molecular docking analysis approach. Our bioprospecting study indicated that many phytohormones may endow human health benefits, with potential functional role in multiple cellular processes including immune response and cell cycle progression.

The Mystery of Cancer Resistance: A Revelation Within Nature

Cancer, a disease due to uncontrolled cell proliferation is as ancient as multicellular organisms. A 255-million-years-old fossilized forerunner mammal gorgonopsian is probably the oldest evidence of cancer, to date. Cancer seems to have evolved by adapting to the microenvironment occupied by immune sentinel, modulating the cellular behavior from cytotoxic to regulatory, acquiring resistance to chemotherapy and surviving hypoxia. The interaction of genes with environmental carcinogens is central to cancer onset, seen as a spectrum of cancer susceptibility among human population. Cancer occurs in life forms other than human also, although their exposure to environmental carcinogens can be different. Role of genetic etiology in cancer in multiple species can be interesting with regard to not only cancer susceptibility, but also genetic conservation and adaptation in speciation. The widely used model organisms for cancer research are mouse and rat which are short-lived and reproduce rapidly. Research in these cancer prone animal models has been valuable as these have led to cancer therapy. However, another rewarding area of cancer research can be the cancer-resistant animal species. The Peto's paradox and G-value paradox are evident when natural cancer resistance is observed in large mammals, like elephant and whale, small rodents viz. Naked Mole Rat and Blind Mole Rat, and Bat. The cancer resistance remains to be explored in other small or large and long-living animals like giraffe, camel, rhinoceros, water buffalo, Indian bison, Shire horse, polar bear, manatee, elephant seal, walrus, hippopotamus, turtle and tortoise, sloth, and squirrel. Indeed, understanding the molecular mechanisms of avoiding neoplastic transformation across various life forms can be potentially having translational value for human cancer management. Adapted and Modified from (Hanahan and Weinberg 2011).

UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS Profiling of Phenolic Compounds from Eriocephalus africanus: In Vitro Antioxidant, Antidiabetic, and Anti-Inflammatory Potentials

The present study investigated phenolic compounds, antioxidant, antidiabetic, and the anti-inflammatory potentials of methanolic and chloroform extracts of Eriocephalus africanus. The methanolic extract included, polyphenols (112 ± 2.81 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g), flavonols (76.12 ± 7.95 mg quercetin equivalents (QE)/g); antioxidant capacity (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) (752.64 ± 89.0 μmol of ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE) per g dry weight (µmol AAE/g), 2,2-dyphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (812.18 ± 51.12 Trolox equivalents per gram of dry mass of plant extracts (μmol TE/g), TEAC (631.63 ± 17.42 µmol TE/g)), while the chloroform extract included polyphenols (39.93 ± 1.36 mg GAE/g), flavonols (44.81 ± 3.74 mg QE/g); antioxidant capacity, DPPH (58.70 ± 5.18 µmol TE/g), TEAC (118.63 ± 3.74 µmol TE/g) and FRAP (107.10 ± 2.41 µmol AAE/g). The phytochemicals profiling performed by UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS revealed some important polyphenols, predominantly flavonoids, that could be responsible for the antioxidant capacity and biological effects. Both extracts demonstrated a dose-dependent manner of the alpha-glucosidase inhibition with an IC₅₀ between 125 and 250 μg/mL for methanolic extract, while the chloroform extract was at 250 μg/mL. In the L6 myoblasts and C3A hepatocytes, the methanolic extract slightly increased the utilization of glucose, and both extracts exhibited a dose-dependent increase in the glucose uptake in both cell types without significantly increasing the cytotoxicity. Furthermore, both extracts exhibited an anti-inflammatory potential and the findings from the present study could serve as a baseline for further research in the development of pharmaceutical agents.

Expression of the Stem Cell Marker ABCB5 in Normal and Tumor Tissues

BACKGROUND/AIM

The ATP-binding cassette subfamily B member 5 (ABCB5) transporter plays a pivotal role in melanocyte progenitor cell fusion and has been identified as a tumor-initiating cell marker. In this study, we determined ABCB5 expression in normal tissues among various species, i.e., Homo sapiens, Mus musculus (mouse), Rattus norvegicus (rat), Sus scrofa domesticus (pig), Gallus gallus (chicken), Anser anser (goose), Poecilia reticulata (Guppy fish), and Lumbricus terrestris (earthworm), as well as 426 biopsies of different human tumor types (colorectal, cervical, endometrium, vaginal, nasopharyngeal, kidney, breast, colon, prostate, pancreas, lung, gallbladder, bladder, brain, liver, skin, small intestine, testis, tonsil, uterus, thyroid, stomach, esophagus, fallopian, parotid, and ovary).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using immunohistochemical staining, ABCB5 expression was detected and evaluated in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections.

RESULTS

High ABCB5 expression was found in normal tissues in specialized cells with secretory and excretory functions, chorionic villi of the placenta, hepatocytes, and blood-tissue barrier sites in the brain and testis. Besides, heterogeneous expression of ABCB5 was also observed in many different tumor types derived from breast, endometrium, ovary, uterus, cervix, prostate, lung, brain, colon, liver, nasopharynx, and others.

CONCLUSION

The localization of ABCB5 in different normal tissues suggests that this protein has an excretory pumping role for physiological metabolites and xenobiotics. This physiological role highlighted its possible impact on the development of multidrug resistance in tumors. Further studies are required to establish the possible clinical significance of ABCB5 as a predictive marker for drug resistance and as a prognostic marker for patient survival.

Ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, chemical ecology and invasion biology of Acanthus mollis L

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Acanthus mollis L. (Bear's Breeches) is a wide-spread medicinal and ornamental plant and is particularly suited to exemplarily illustrate the diverse aspects of invasion biology by neophytes. Since ancient times, it has been a popular Mediterranean ornamental plant in horticulture and served as model for the decoration of column capitals in architecture.

AIM OF THE STUDY

In the present review, we aimed to give an overview about ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, chemical ecology, and invasion biology of A. mollis. Thus, the importance of plantation cultivation in the presence of ecologically problematic species and environmental protection were emphasized.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted an extensive literature search via screening PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, in order to compile the data about A. mollis and its role on invasion biology and thereby attracting attention to the prominence of the horticultural and agricultural cultivation of plant species with a special focus on A. mollis as a model.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Phytochemical analyses revealed secondary metabolites from the classes of flavonoids, phenols, phenylpropanoids, anthraquinones arylnaphthalene lignans, phytosterols and others. Extracts of A. mollis and isolated phytochemicals not only exert assorted activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective in murine and human experimental models, but also act against plant parasites (bacteria, insects, mollusks, fungi), protecting the plant from microbial attack and herbivorous predators. A. mollis has been used in traditional medicine to treat dermatological ailments, gastrointestinal diseases, ulcers and even tumors. Nevertheless, the robustness and rapid growth of A. mollis as well as the global horticultural trade facilitated its invasion into fragile ecosystems of Australia, New Zealand, and several other spots around the globe in Northern Europe (Great Britain), Asia (China, India), South Africa, and South America (Argentina). The release of A. mollis from gardens into the wild represents a considerable danger as invasive species are threatening biodiversity and leading to the extinction of domestic plants in the long run. Likewise, the likelihood of other medicinal plants in terms of invasion biology are needed to be fully recognized and discussed.

Kinome-Wide Profiling Identifies Human WNK3 as a Target of Cajanin Stilbene Acid from Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp

Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) is a common food crop used in many parts of the world for nutritional purposes. One of its chemical constituents is cajanin stilbene acid (CSA), which exerts anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo. In an effort to identify molecular targets of CSA, we performed a kinome-wide approach based on the measurement of the enzymatic activities of 252 human kinases. The serine-threonine kinase WNK3 (also known as protein kinase lysine-deficient 3) was identified as the most promising target of CSA with the strongest enzymatic activity inhibition in vitro and the highest binding affinity in molecular docking in silico. The lowest binding affinity and the predicted binding constant pKi of CSA (−9.65 kcal/mol and 0.084 µM) were comparable or even better than those of the known WNK3 inhibitor PP-121 (−9.42 kcal/mol and 0.123 µM). The statistically significant association between WNK3 mRNA expression and cellular responsiveness to several clinically established anticancer drugs in a panel of 60 tumor cell lines and the prognostic value of WNK3 mRNA expression in sarcoma biopsies for the survival time of 230 patients can be taken as clues that CSA-based inhibition of WNK3 may improve treatment outcomes of cancer patients and that CSA may serve as a valuable supplement to the currently used combination therapy protocols in oncology.

Metabolomics analysis of dandelions from different geographical regions in China

INTRODUCTION

Dandelion (Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz.) is a perennial herb with diverse pharmacological effects. The development and utilization of dandelion have attracted much attention.

OBJECTIVES

Our aims were to provide a reference basis for the identification of the origin of dandelions and to study the influence of their origin on their quality. Methods High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to analyze metabolites from dandelions from four different geographical regions in China, namely Gansu, Henan, Shanxi, and Jiangsu. Metabolite analysis was performed using orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis, and to identify potential metabolic pathways, MBRole was used to perform Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis.

RESULTS

Principal component analysis revealed that the chemical components of dandelions sampled from the four regions showed noticeable differences. Twenty-six, six, six, eight, eight, and fifteen differentially produced metabolites were identified upon comparison between Gansu and Jiangsu, Gansu and Shanxi, Gansu and Henan, Henan and Shanxi, Henan and Jiangsu, and Shanxi and Jiangsu, respectively. These differentially produced metabolites were mainly phenolic compounds. Further, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the main metabolic pathways involved were biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids and flavonoids.

CONCLUSION

The methods reported herein can be used to identify the origin of dandelions; moreover, our results can serve as a reference basis for future studies.

Presentation of Novel Hybrid Algorithm for Detection and Classification of Breast Cancer Using Growth Region Method and Probabilistic Neural Network

Mammography is a significant screening test for early detection of breast cancer, which increases the patient's chances of complete recovery. In this paper, a clustering method is presented for the detection of breast cancer tumor locations and areas. To implement the clustering method, we used the growth region approach. This method detects similar pixels nearby. To find the best initial point for detection, it is essential to remove human interaction in clustering. Therefore, in this paper, the FCM-GA algorithm is used to find the best point for starting growth. Their results are compared with the manual selection method and Gaussian Mixture Model method for verification. The classification is performed to diagnose breast cancer type in two primary datasets of MIAS and BI-RADS using features of GLCM and probabilistic neural network (PNN). Results of clustering show that the presented FCM-GA method outperforms other methods. Moreover, the accuracy of the clustering method for FCM-GA is 94%, as the best approach used in this paper. Furthermore, the result shows that the PNN methods have high accuracy and sensitivity with the MIAS dataset.

Exploring the Role of Phytochemicals as Potent Natural Photosensitizers in Photodynamic Therapy

BACKGROUND

Cancer is still considered a deadly disease worldwide due to difficulties in diagnosis, painful treatment procedures, costly therapies, side effects, and cancer relapse. Cancer treatments using conventional methods like chemotherapy and radiotherapy were not convincing due to its post-treatment toxicity in the host. In Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), three individual non-toxic components including a photosensitizer, light source and oxygen cause damage to the cells and tissues when they are combined.

OBJECTIVE

In recent years, phytochemicals are being increasingly recognized as potent complementary drugs for cancer because of its natural availability, less toxicity and therapeutic efficiency in par with commercial drugs. Hence, the idea of using phytochemicals as natural photosensitizers in PDT resulted in a multiple pool of research studies with promising results in preclinical and clinical investigations.

METHODS

In this review, the potential of phytochemicals to act as natural photosensitizers for PDT, their mode of action, drawbacks, challenges and possible solutions are discussed in detail.

RESULTS

In PDT, natural photosensitizers, when used alone or in combination with other photosensitizers, induced cell death by apoptosis and necrosis, increased oxidative stress, altered cancer cell death signaling pathways, increased cytotoxicity and DNA damage in cancer cells. The pro-oxidant nature of certain antioxidant polyphenols, hormesis phenomenon, Warburg effect and DNA damaging potential plays a significant role in the photosensitizing mechanism of phytochemicals in PDT.

CONCLUSION

This review explores the role of phytochemicals that can act as photosensitizers alone or in combination with PDT and its mechanism of action on different cancers.

Linking Plant Secondary Metabolites and Plant Microbiomes: A Review

Plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) play many roles including defense against pathogens, pests, and herbivores; response to environmental stresses, and mediating organismal interactions. Similarly, plant microbiomes participate in many of the above-mentioned processes directly or indirectly by regulating plant metabolism. Studies have shown that plants can influence their microbiome by secreting various metabolites and, in turn, the microbiome may also impact the metabolome of the host plant. However, not much is known about the communications between the interacting partners to impact their phenotypic changes. In this article, we review the patterns and potential underlying mechanisms of interactions between PSMs and plant microbiomes. We describe the recent developments in analytical approaches and methods in this field. The applications of these new methods and approaches have increased our understanding of the relationships between PSMs and plant microbiomes. Though the current studies have primarily focused on model organisms, the methods and results obtained so far should help future studies of agriculturally important plants and facilitate the development of methods to manipulate PSMs-microbiome interactions with predictive outcomes for sustainable crop productions.

Plant tumors: a hundred years of study

The review provides information on the mechanisms underlying the development of spontaneous and pathogen-induced tumors in higher plants. The activation of meristem-specific regulators in plant tumors of various origins suggests the meristem-like nature of abnormal plant hyperplasia. Plant tumor formation has more than a century of research history. The study of this phenomenon has led to a number of important discoveries, including the development of the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation technique and the discovery of horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to plants. There are two main groups of plant tumors: pathogen-induced tumors (e.g., tumors induced by bacteria, viruses, fungi, insects, etc.), and spontaneous ones, which are formed in the absence of any pathogen in plants with certain genotypes (e.g., interspecific hybrids, inbred lines, and mutants). The causes of the transition of plant cells to tumor growth are different from those in animals, and they include the disturbance of phytohormonal balance and the acquisition of meristematic characteristics by differentiated cells. The aim of this review is to discuss the mechanisms underlying the development of most known examples of plant tumors.