Neuroactivity of the naturally occurring aporphine alkaloid, roemerine

An Updated Review on Nelumbo Nucifera Gaertn: Chemical Composition, Nutritional Value and Pharmacological Activities

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn is a recognised herbal plant in ancient medical sciences. Each portion of the plant leaf, flower, seed and rhizome is utilised for nutritional and medicinal purposes. The chemical compositions like phenol, alkaloids, glycoside, terpenoids and steroids have been isolated. The plant contains various nutritional values like lipids, proteins, amino acids, minerals, carbohydrates, and fatty acids. Traditional medicine confirms that the phytochemicals of plants give significant benefits to the treatment of various diseases such as leukoderma, smallpox, dysentery, haematemesis, coughing, haemorrhage, metrorrhagia, haematuria, fever, hyperlipidaemia, cholera, hepatopathy and hyperdipsia. To verify the traditional claims, researchers have conducted scientific biological in vivo and in vitro screenings, which have exhibited that the plant keeps various notable pharmacological activities such as anticancer, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, antiviral, hypolipidemic, anti-obesity, antipyretic, hypoglycaemic, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities. This review, summaries the nutritional composition, chemical constituents and biological activities substantiated by the researchers done in vivo and in vitro.

Neurotrophic Natural Products

Neurotrophins (NGF, BDNF, NT3, NT4) can decrease cell death, induce differentiation, as well as sustain the structure and function of neurons, which make them promising therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. However, neurotrophins have not been very effective in clinical trials mostly because they cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier owing to being high-molecular-weight proteins. Thus, neurotrophin-mimic small molecules, which stimulate the synthesis of endogenous neurotrophins or enhance neurotrophic actions, may serve as promising alternatives to neurotrophins. Small-molecular-weight natural products, which have been used in dietary functional foods or in traditional medicines over the course of human history, have a great potential for the development of new therapeutic agents against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. In this contribution, a variety of natural products possessing neurotrophic properties such as neurogenesis, neurite outgrowth promotion (neuritogenesis), and neuroprotection are described, and a focus is made on the chemistry and biology of several neurotrophic natural products.

Aporphines: A privileged scaffold in CNS drug discovery

Aporphine alkaloids embedded in 4H-dibenzo[de,g]quinoline four-ring structures belong to one of the largest subclasses of isoquinoline alkaloids. Aporphine is a privileged scaffold in the field of organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry for the discovery of new therapeutic agents for central nervous system (CNS) diseases, cancer, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases. In the past few decades, aporphine has attracted continuing interest to be widely used to develop selective or multitarget directed ligands (MTDLs) targeting the CNS (e.g., dopamine D_1/2/5, serotonin 5-HT_1A/2A/2C and 5-HT₇, adrenergic α/β receptors, and cholinesterase enzymes), thereby serving as valuable pharmacological probes for mechanism studies or as potential leads for CNS drug discovery. The aims of the present review are to highlight the diverse CNS activities of aporphines, discuss their SAR, and briefly summarize general synthetic routes, which will pave the way for the design and development of new aporphine derivatives as promising CNS active drugs in the future.

GC-MS Analysis of Bioactive Compounds in Methanolic Extracts of Papaver decaisnei and Determination of Its Antioxidants and Anticancer Activities

The Papaver L. plant (Papaver decaisnei) has ethnobotanical records in many countries including Iraqi Kurdistan. The current study investigates the methanol (99.9%) extracts (10 μg/mL) of roots, leaves, and flowers of Papaver decaisnei in terms of phytochemistry by gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry GC-MS, in vitro antioxidant activity by radical scavenging and reducing power assays, and finally, the anticancer actions as IC50 (inhibitory concentration at 50%) against human colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2), mammary cancer cells (MCF-7), and human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cells. The results showed 22, 19, and 17 chemicals for roots, leaves, and flowers of P. decaisnei, respectively. The prevalent organic compounds of P. decaisnei were alkaloids (62.03%), phenolics (55.43%), fatty acids (42.51%), esters (32.08%), terpenoids (25.59%), and phytosterols (15.68%), namely, roemerine (70.44%), 9,12,15-octadecatrien-1-ol (37.45%), hexadecanoic acid (33.72%), decarbomethoxytabersonine (24.49%), and γ-sitosterol (11.22%). The antioxidant activity of plant organs was within 39.1–143.5 μg/mL for DPPH, 135.4–276.4 μg/mL for ABTS, 12.4–34.3 μg/mL for FRAP, and 42.6–75.8 μg/mL for CUPRAC assays. The anticancer of P. decaisnei was found as 125.3–388.4 μg/mL against all tested cell lines (Caco-2, MCF-7, and HeLa). The detected alkaloids and bioactivity of P. decaisnei encourage future isolation of those remarkable alkaloids (reomerine) for potential usage in the pharmaceutical industry.

Natural Aporphine Alkaloids with Potential to Impact Metabolic Syndrome

The incidence and prevalence of metabolic syndrome has steadily increased worldwide. As a major risk factor for various diseases, metabolic syndrome has come into focus in recent years. Some natural aporphine alkaloids are very promising agents in the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome and its components because of their wide variety of biological activities. These natural aporphine alkaloids have protective effects on the different risk factors characterizing metabolic syndrome. In this review, we highlight the activities of bioactive aporphine alkaloids: thaliporphine, boldine, nuciferine, pronuciferine, roemerine, dicentrine, magnoflorine, anonaine, apomorphine, glaucine, predicentrine, isolaureline, xylopine, methylbulbocapnine, and crebanine. We particularly focused on their impact on metabolic syndrome and its components, including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus, endothelial dysfunction, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia and obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hyperuricemia and kidney damage, erectile dysfunction, central nervous system-related disorder, and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis. We also discussed the potential mechanisms of actions by aporphine alkaloids in metabolic syndrome.

Natural Compounds as Medical Strategies in the Prevention and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders Seen in Neurological Diseases

Psychiatric disorders are frequently encountered in many neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson diseases along with epilepsy, migraine, essential tremors, and stroke. The most common comorbid diagnoses in neurological diseases are depression and anxiety disorders along with cognitive impairment. Whether the underlying reason is due to common neurochemical mechanisms or loss of previous functioning level, comorbidities are often overlooked. Various treatment options are available, such as pharmacological treatments, cognitive-behavioral therapy, somatic interventions, or electroconvulsive therapy. However oral antidepressant therapy may have some disadvantages, such as interaction with other medications, low tolerability due to side effects, and low efficiency. Natural compounds of plant origin are extensively researched to find a better and safer alternative treatment. Experimental studies have shown that phytochemicals such as alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, phenolic acids as well as lipids have significant potential in in vitro and in vivo models of psychiatric disorders. In this review, various efficacy of natural products in in vitro and in vivo studies on neuroprotective and their roles in psychiatric disorders are examined and their neuro-therapeutic potentials are shed light.