Falcarindiol Purified From Carrots Leads to Elevated Levels of Lipid Droplets and Upregulation of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ Gene Expression in Cellular Models

Pathways Affected by Falcarinol-Type Polyacetylenes and Implications for Their Anti-Inflammatory Function and Potential in Cancer Chemoprevention

Polyacetylene phytochemicals are emerging as potentially responsible for the chemoprotective effects of consuming apiaceous vegetables. There is some evidence suggesting that polyacetylenes (PAs) impact carcinogenesis by influencing a wide variety of signalling pathways, which are important in regulating inflammation, apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, etc. Studies have shown a correlation between human dietary intake of PA-rich vegetables with a reduced risk of inflammation and cancer. PA supplementation can influence cell growth, gene expression and immunological responses, and has been shown to reduce the tumour number in rat and mouse models. Cancer chemoprevention by dietary PAs involves several mechanisms, including effects on inflammatory cytokines, the NF-κB pathway, antioxidant response elements, unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway, growth factor signalling, cell cycle progression and apoptosis. This review summarises the published research on falcarinol-type PA compounds and their mechanisms of action regarding cancer chemoprevention and also identifies some gaps in our current understanding of the health benefits of these PAs.

Synergistic activity of the combination of falcarindiol and itraconazole in vitro against dermatophytes

Previous studies have shown that natural polyacetylene alcohols, such as falcarindiol (FADOH), have good antifungal effects on plant fungi. While its effect on fungi that infect humans remains to be explored. In our study, checkerboard microdilution, drop-plate assay, and time-growth method were employed to analyze the interactions between FADOH and itraconazole (ITC) in vitro against dermatophytes, including 12 Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum), 12 Trichophyton mentagrophytes (T. mentagrophytes), and 6 Microsporum canis (M. canis). The results showed that the combination of FADOH and ITC exhibited synergistic and additive activity against 86.7% of all tested dermatophytes. FADOH had an excellent synergistic effect on ITC against T. rubrum and T. mentagrophytes; the synergistic rates were 66.7% and 58.3%, respectively. On the contrary, FADOH combined with ITC showed poor synergistic inhibitory activity (16.7%) against M. canis. Moreover, the additive rates of these two drugs against T. rubrum, T. mentagrophytes, and M. canis were 25%, 41.7%, and 33.3%, respectively. No antagonistic interactions were observed. The drop-plate assay and time-growth curves confirmed that the combination of FADOH and ITC had a potent synergistic antifungal effect. The in vitro synergistic effect of FADOH and ITC against dermatophytes is reported here for the first time. Our findings suggest the potential use of FADOH as an effective antifungal drug in the combined therapy of dermatophytoses caused especially by T. rubrum and T. mentagrophytes.

Nuclear envelope morphology change upon repetitive treatment with modified antisense oligonucleotides targeting Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

We present the influence of treating progeroid fibroblasts with two modified antisense oligonucleotides (ONs) on the nuclear envelope. Two modified ONs were designed to block ribosome binding during translation and spliceosome binding at the cryptic splice site. We analysed the changes in the nuclear morphology of progeria cell nuclei after repetitive transfection with modified ONs as a physical analysis tool for estimating alteration of the gene expression at the protein level. Confocal microscopy was used to image the nuclei, and the nuclear lobulations were quantified to study the changes in the morphology of the nuclear envelope upon treatment. PCR was used to identify the changes in the expression of lamin A and progerin after antisense treatment at the RNA level. We found a significant decrease in the number of nuclear envelope lobulations and a lower progerin expression in progeria cells after transfection with modified ONs.

Novel six-gene prognostic signature based on colon adenocarcinoma immune-related genes

Background

Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is one of the most common gastrointestinal tumors worldwide, and immunotherapy is one of the most promising treatments for it. Identifying immune genes involved in the development and maintenance of cancer is key to the use of tumor immunotherapy. This study aimed to determine the prognostic value of immune genes in patients with COAD and to establish an immune-related gene signature. Differentially expressed genes, immune-related genes (DEIGs), and transcription factors (DETFs) were screened using the following databases: Cistrome, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the Immunology Database and Analysis Portal, and InnateDB. We constructed a network showing the regulation of DEIGs by DETFs. Using weighted gene co-expression network analysis, we prepared 5 co-expressed gene modules; 6 hub genes (CD1A, CD1B, FGF9, GRP, SERPINE1, and F2RL2) obtained using univariate and multivariate regression analysis were used to construct a risk model. Patients from TCGA database were divided into high- and low-risk groups based on whether their risk score was greater or less than the mean; the public dataset GSE40967, which contains gene expression profiles of 566 colon cancer patients, was used for validation.

Results

Survival analysis, somatic gene mutations, and tumor-infiltrating immune cells differed significantly between the high- and low-risk groups.

Conclusions

This immune-related gene signature could play an important role in guiding treatment, making prognoses, and potentially developing future clinical applications.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-022-04909-2.

Polyacetylenes in herbal medicine: A comprehensive review of its occurrence, pharmacology, toxicology, and pharmacokinetics (2014-2021)

Polyacetylenes are a kind of small active compounds with carbon-carbon triple bond with vast occurrence in plants. Polyacetylenes have attracted considerable attention owing to their diverse biofunctions like tumor suppression, immunity regulation, depression resistance and neural protection. The present review intends to reconstruct data concerning the occurrence, pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacokinetics of polyacetylenes from herbal medicine in a systematic and integrated way, with a view to backing up their curative potential and healthcare properties (2014-2021). The natural polyacetylene-related data were all acquired from the scientific search engines and databases that are globally recognized, such as PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, SciFinderⁿ and CNKI. A total of 183 polyacetylenes were summarized in this paper. Modern pharmacological studies indicated that polyacetylenes possess multiple biological activities including antitumor, immunomodulatory, neuroprotective, anti-depression, anti-obesity, hypoglycemic, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, hepatoprotective and renoprotective activities. As important bioactive components of herbal medicine, the pharmacological curative potential of polyacetylenes has been described against carcinomas, inflammatory responses, central nervous system, endocrine disorders and microbial infection in this review. While, further in-depth studies on the aspects of polyacetylenes for toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and molecular mechanisms are still limited, thereby intensive research and assessments should be performed.

Evaluation of in vitro and in silico anti-inflammatory potential of some selected medicinal plants of Bangladesh against cyclooxygenase-II enzyme

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Medicinal plants are sources of chemical treasures that can be used in treatment of different diseases, including inflammatory disorders. Traditionally, Heritiera littoralis, Ceriops decandra, Ligustrum sinense, and Polyscias scutellaria are used to treat pain, hepatitis, breast inflammation. The present research was designed to explore phytochemicals from the ethanol extracts of H. littoralis, C. decandra, L. sinense, and P. scutellaria to discern the possible pharmacophore (s) in the treatment of inflammatory disorders.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The chemical compounds of experimental plants were identified through GC-MS analysis. Furthermore, in-vitro anti-inflammatory activity was assessed in human erythrocytes and an in-silico study was appraised against COX-2.

RESULTS

The experimental extracts totally revealed 77 compounds in GC-MS analysis and all the extracts showed anti-inflammatory activity in in-vitro assays. The most favorable phytochemicals as anti-inflammatory agents were selected via ADMET profiling and molecular docking with specific protein of the COX-2 enzyme. Molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) confirmed the stability of the selected natural compound at the binding site of the protein. Three phytochemicals exhibited the better competitive result than the conventional anti-inflammatory drug naproxen in molecular docking and MDS studies.

CONCLUSION

Both experimental and computational studies have scientifically revealed the folklore uses of the experimental medicinal plants in inflammatory disorders. Overall, N-(2-hydroxycyclohexyl)-4-methylbenzenesulfonamide (PubChem CID: 575170); Benzeneethanamine, 2-fluoro-. beta., 3, 4-trihydroxy-N-isopropyl (PubChem CID: 547892); and 3,5-di-tert-butylphenol (PubChem CID: 70825) could be the potential leads for COX-2 inhibitor for further evaluation of drug-likeliness.