In silico investigation of lavandulyl flavonoids for the development of potent fatty acid synthase-inhibitory prototypes

Sophoraflavanone G: A review of the phytochemistry and pharmacology

Bioactive compounds derived from natural sources have long been investigated for the prevention and treatment of human diseases. Sophoraflavanone G (SFG), a lavandulyl flavanone naturally occurring in several Sophora plant species, belongs to the group of prenylated flavonoids that have garnered significant interest in contemporary research. The natural molecule exhibits a wide range of pharmacological properties and shows remarkable efficacy. Its ability to effectively suppress a range of malignant tumor cells, such as leukemia, breast cancer, and lung cancer, is attributed to its multi-target, multi-pathway, and multi-faceted mechanisms of action. Simultaneously, it can also alleviate various inflammatory diseases by mediating inflammatory mediators and molecular pathways. Furthermore, it has the capability to combat antibiotic resistance, exhibit synergistic antibacterial properties with diverse antibiotics, and prevent and treat various agricultural pests. Theoretically, it can bring benefits to human health and has potential value as a drug. Nevertheless, the drawbacks of poor water solubility and inadequate targeting cannot be overlooked. To comprehensively assess the current research on SFG, leverage its structural advantages and pharmacological activity, overcome its low bioavailability limitations, expedite its progression into a novel therapeutic drug, and better serve the clinic, this article presents a overall retrospect of the current research status of SFG. The discussion includes an analysis of the structural characteristics, physicochemical properties, bioavailability, pharmacological activities, and structure-activity relationships of SFG, with the goal of offering valuable insights and guidance for future research endeavors in this field.

Prenylated Flavonoids Isolated from the Root of Sophora flavescens as Potent Antifungal Agents against Botrytis cinerea

Sophora flavescens, a traditional Chinese herb, produces a wide range of secondary metabolites with a broad spectrum of biological activities. In this study, we isolated six isopentenyl flavonoids (1-6) from the roots of S. flavescens and evaluated their activities against phytopathogenic fungi. In vitro activities showed that kurarinone and sophoraflavanone G displayed broad spectrum and superior activities, among which sophoraflavanone G displayed excellent activity against tested fungi, with EC50 values ranging from 4.76 to 13.94 μg/mL. Notably, kurarinone was easily purified and showed potential activity against Rhizoctonia solani, Botrytis cinerea, and Fusarium graminearum with EC50 values of 16.12, 16.55, and 16.99 μg/mL, respectively. Consequently, we initially investigated the mechanism of kurarinone against B. cinerea. It was found that kurarinone disrupted cell wall components, impaired cell membrane integrity, increased cell membrane permeability, and affected cellular energy metabolism, thereby exerting its effect against B. cinerea. Therefore, kurarinone is expected to be a potential candidate for the development of plant fungicides.

Potential Mechanisms of Pyrrosiae Folium in Treating Prostate Cancer Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Objective The network pharmacology approach and molecular docking were employed to explore the mechanism of Pyrrosiae Folium(PF) against prostate cancer (PCa). Methods The active compounds and their corresponding putative targets of PF were identified by the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP), the gene names of the targets were obtained from the UniProt database. The collection of genes associated with PCa were obtained from GeneCards and DisGeNET database. We merged the drug targets and disease targets by online software, Draw Venn Diagram. The resulting gene list was imported into R software (v3.6.3) for GO and KEGG function enrichment analysis. The STRING database was utilized for protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction. The cytoHubba plugin of Cytoscape was used to identify core genes. Further, molecular docking analysis of the hub targets were carried out using AutoDock Vina software (v1.5.6). Results A total of 6 active components were screened by PF, with 167 corresponding putative targets, 1395 related targets for PCa, and 113 targets for drugs and diseases. The "drug-component-disease-target" network was constructed by Cytoscape software and the target genes mainly involved in the complex treating effects associated with response to oxidative stress, cytokine activity, pathways in cancer, prostate cancer pathway and TNF signaling pathway. Core genes in the PPI network were TNF, JUN, IL6, IL1B, CXCL8, RELA, CCL2, TP53, IL10 and FOS. The molecular docking results reveal the better binding affinity of 6 active components to the core targets. Conclusion The results of this study indicated that PF may be have a certain anti-PCa effect by regulating related target genes, affecting Pathways in cancer, TNF signaling pathway, Hepatitis B signaling pathway.

Review on target domains and natural compound-based inhibitors of fatty acid synthase for anticancer drug discovery

Cancer cells require a higher amount of energy in the form of fatty acids for their uncontrolled proliferation and growth. Fatty acid synthase (FASN) plays a crucial role in the synthesis of palmitate, which is involved in most of the critical malignant pathways. Hence, by targeting FASN, tumour growth can be controlled. By designing and developing FASN inhibitors with catalytic domain specificity, safe and potential anticancer drugs can be achieved. The article draws light towards the catalytic domains of FASN, their active site residues and interaction of some of the reported natural FASN inhibitors (resveratrol, lavandulyl flavonoids, catechins, stilbene derivatives, etc). The rationality (structure-activity relationship) behind the variation in the activity of the reported natural FASN inhibitors (butyrolactones, polyphenolics, galloyl esters and thiolactomycins) has also been covered. Selective, safe and potentially active FASN inhibitors could be developed by: (i) having proper understanding of the function of all catalytic domains of FASN (ii) studying the upstream and downstream FASN regulators (iii) identifying cancer-specific FASN biomarkers (that are non-essential/absent in the normal healthy cells) (iv) exploring the complete protein structure of FASN, e-screening of the compounds prior to synthesis and study their ADME properties (v) predicting the selectivity based on their strong affinity at the catalytic site of FASN.

Seven new prenylated flavanones from the roots of Sophora flavescens and their anti-proliferative activities

Aiming to discover potent anti-proliferative agents from the roots of Sophora flavescens, seven new prenylated flavanones were isolated, along with 16 known compounds. Their structures were elucidated by interpretation of their spectroscopic data (1D and 2D NMR, UV, IR, CD, and HRESIMS) and comparison to literature data. In the in vitro assay, 21 showed anti-proliferative activity against human hepatoma cells (HepG2). Studies of its mechanism revealed that 21 could significantly activate autophagic flux and trigger ROS release in HepG2 cells. Western blot experiments demonstrated that 21 could activate the key signaling protein of autophagy and ROS, while it does not affect the main protein of the apoptosis signaling pathway. These results suggested that 21 mediates its anti-proliferative effects through autophagic cell death, which is apoptosis-independent.

Computational screening of fatty acid synthase inhibitors against thioesterase domain

Thioesterase (TE) domain of fatty acid synthase (FAS) is an attractive therapeutic target for design and development of anticancer drugs. In this present work, we search for the potential FAS inhibitors of TE domain from the ZINC database based on similarity search using three natural compounds as templates, including flavonoids, terpenoids, and phenylpropanoids. Molecular docking was used to predict the interaction energy of each screened ligand compared to the reference compound, which is methyl γ-linolenylfluorophosphonate (MGLFP). Based on this computational technique, rosmarinic acid and its eight analogs were observed as a new series of potential FAS inhibitors, which showed a stronger binding affinity than MGLFP. Afterward, nine docked complexes were studied by molecular dynamics simulations for investigating protein-ligand interactions and binding free energies using MM-PB(GB)SA, MM-3DRISM-KH, and QM/MM-GBSA methods. The binding free energy calculation indicated that the ZINC85948835 (R34) displayed the strongest binding efficiency against the TE domain of FAS. There are eight residues (S2308, I2250, E2251, Y2347, Y2351, F2370, L2427, and E2431) mainly contributed for the R34 binding. Moreover, R34 could directly form hydrogen bonds with S2308, which is one of the catalytic triad of TE domain. Therefore, our finding suggested that R34 could be a potential candidate as a novel FAS-TE inhibitor for further drug design.

Polyphenols, food and pharma. Current knowledge and directions for future research

Polyphenols are a large family of phytochemicals with great chemical diversity, known to be bioactive compounds of foods, species, medicinal plants and nutraceuticals. These compounds are ingested through the diet in significant amounts, around 1 g per day, an amount that be may be increased through supplements. The in vitro action of many representative polyphenols has been reported. However, their beneficial effects and their role in modulating the risk of high-prevalence diseases are difficult to demonstrate due to the wide variability of polyphenol structures and bioactive actions; the complexity of estimating the polyphenol content of food as a result of their variability in foods and cooked dishes; the potential modulation of the effects of polyphenols by food matrices; the addition of polyphenols and their synergistic interactions with each other and with other dietary bioactive components; the modulation of polyphenol bioavailability as a consequence of food composition and culinary techniques; their metabolism by the human body and the polyphenol gut microbiota metabolism in each metabotypes. Computational strategies, including virtual screening, shape-similarity-screening and molecular docking, were recently used to identify potential targets of polyphenols and thus gain a better understanding of the therapeutic effects exerted of polyphenols and modify natural polyphenol structures to potentiate specific activities. Here, we present the most relevant current knowledge and propose directions for future research in these fields, from the culinary world to the clinical setting. We hope this commentary will prompt scientists and clinicians to consider the therapeutic value of bioactive polyphenols and help shed some light on how much scientific truth lies in Hippocrates' famous quote: "Let your food be your medicine".

Cytotoxic garcimultiflorones K-Q, lavandulyl benzophenones from Garcinia multiflora branches

Seven undescribed lavandulyl benzophenones garcimultiflorones K-Q, and fourteen known compounds were isolated from the CHCl₃ soluble fraction of 95% EtOH extract of Garcinia multiflora branches. Their structures and absolute configurations were determined by spectroscopic techniques including NMR spectroscopy, MS analysis, and ECD calculations. Seven isolated compounds expect for garcimultiflorone L and garcimultiflorone O exhibited cytotoxic activities in vitro against five cancer cell lines (HL-60, A549, SMMC-7721, MCF-7, and SW480). It is worth mentioning that garcimultiflorone Q exhibited most significant cytotoxicities against five cancer cell lines with IC₅₀ values ranging from 3.07-12.56 μM.

Identification of novel antilipogenic agents targeting fatty acid biosynthesis through structure-based virtual screening

An Asinex Gold Platinium chemical library subset of 12 055 compounds was screened employing docking simulations in the active site of the human FAS KS domain. Among them, 13 compounds were further evaluated for their ability to inhibit fatty acid biosynthesis. Four compounds were found to be active in particular ASN05064661 and ASN05374526 with IC50 values of 6.6 and 10.5 μm, respectively. A binding mode study was further conducted with these two compounds structurally related to benzene sulfonamide and aromatic polyamide. This study showed that they fit tightly with the active site with several interactions, notably with the key residues Cys161, His293, and His331.