Bioactivity-Guided Fractionation of Pine Needle Reveals Catechin as an Anti-hypertension Agent via Inhibiting Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme

Identification and Molecular Docking Analysis of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors from Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana)

Hypertension remains a significant global health concern, contributing significantly to cardiovascular diseases and mortality rates. The inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a crucial role in alleviating high blood pressure. We investigated the potential of finger millets (Eleusine coracana) as a natural remedy for hypertension by isolating and characterizing its ACE-inhibitory compound. First, we evaluated the ACE-inhibitory activity of the finger millet ethanol extract and subsequently proceeded with solvent fractionation. Among the solvent fractions, the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited the highest ACE inhibitory activity and was further fractionated. Using preparative high-performance liquid chromatography, the ethyl acetate fraction was separated into four subfractions, with fraction 2 (F2) exhibiting the highest ACE inhibitory activity. Subsequent 1 H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and 13 C-NMR analyses confirmed that the isolated compound from F2 was catechin. Furthermore, molecular docking studies indicated that catechin has the potential to act as an ACE inhibitor. These findings suggest that finger millets, particularly as a source of catechin, have the potential to be used as a natural antihypertensive.

Neurogenesis-Associated Protein, a Potential Prognostic Biomarker in Anti-PD-1 Based Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma Patient Therapeutics

The transketolase 1 gene (TKTL1) is an essential factor that contributes to brain development. Some studies have shown the influence of TKTL1 in cancers, but it has been rarely reported in kidney cancer. Furthermore, the role of TKTL1 in the prognosis and tumor infiltration of immune cells in various cancers, particularly kidney cancer, remains unknown. In this study, TKTL1 expression and its clinical characteristics were investigated using a variety of databases. TIMER was used to investigate the relationship between TKTL1 and immune infiltrates in various types of cancer. We also studied the relationship between TKTL1 expression and response to PD-1 blocker immunotherapy in renal cancer. We conducted TKTL1 agonists virtual screening from 13,633 natural compounds (L6020), implemented secondary library construction according to the types of top results, and then conducted secondary virtual screening for 367 alkaloids. Finally, in vitro assays of cell viability assays and colony formation assays were performed to demonstrate the pharmacological potency of the screening of TKTL1 agonists. Using these methods, we determined that TKTL1 significantly affects the prognostic potential in different types of kidney cancer patients. The underlying mechanism might be that the TKTL1 expression level was positively associated with devious immunocytes in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) rather than in kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) and kidney chromophobe (KICH). This recruitment may result from the up-regulation of the mTOR signaling pathway affecting T cell metabolism. We also found that TKTL1 may act as an immunomodulator in KIRC patients' response to anti-PD-1 therapy. Moreover, we also found that piperine and glibenclamide are potent agonists of TKTL1. We have demonstrated, in vitro, that piperine and glibenclamide can inhibit the proliferation and clone formation of Caki-2 cell lines by agonizing the expression of TKTL1. In summary, our discovery implies that TKTL1 may be a promising prognostic biomarker for KIRC patients who respond to anti-PD-1 therapy. Piperine and glibenclamide may be effective therapeutic TKTL1 agonists, providing a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of kidney cancer.

Ginsenosides, potential TMPRSS2 inhibitors, a trade-off between the therapeutic combination for anti-PD-1 immunotherapy and the treatment of COVID-19 infection of LUAD patients

Background: Acting as a viral entry for coronavirus to invade human cells, TMPRSS2 has become a target for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection. Before this, TMPRSS2 has presented biological functions in cancer, but the roles remain controversial and the mechanism remains unelucidated. Some chemicals have been reported to be inhibitors of TMPRSS2 and also demonstrated other pharmacological properties. At this stage, it is important to discover more new compounds targeting TMPRSS2, especially from natural products, for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection.

Methods: We analyzed the correlation between TMPRSS2 expression, methylation level, overall survival rate, clinical parameters, biological process, and determined the correlation between TMPRSS2 and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in the tumor and adjacent normal tissue of adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) respectively by using various types of bioinformatics approaches. Moreover, we determined the correlation between TMPRSS2 protein level and the prognosis of LUAD and LUSC cohorts by immunohistochemistry assay. Furthermore, the cancer immunome atlas (TCIA) database was used to predict the relationship between the expression of TMPRSS2 and response to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blocker immunotherapy in lung cancer patients. Finally, the putative binding site of ginsenosides bound to TMPRSS2 protein was built from homology modeling to screen high-potency TMPRSS2 inhibitors.

Results: We found that TMPRSS2 recruits various types of immunocytes, including CD8+, CD4+ T cells, B cells and DCs both in LUAD and LUSC patients, and the correlation between TMPRSS2 expression and CD8+ and CD4+ T cells are stronger in LUAD rather than in LUSC, but excludes macrophages and neutrophils in LUAD patient cohorts. These might be the reason that higher mRNA and protein levels of TMPRSS2 are associated with better prognosis in LUAD cohorts rather than in LUSC cohorts. Furthermore, we found that TMPRSS2 was positively correlated with the prognosis in patient nonresponse to anti-PD-1 therapy. Therefore, we made an inference that increasing the expression level of TMPRSS2 may improve the anti-PD-1 immunotherapy efficacy. Finally, five ginsenosides candidates with high inhibition potency were screened from the natural chemical library to be used as TMPRSS2 inhibitors.

Conclusion: All these may imply that TMPRSS2 might be a novel prognostic biomarker and serve as a potential immunomodulator target of immunotherapy combination therapies in LUAD patients nonresponse to anti-PD-1 therapy. Also, these findings may suggest we should pay more attention to LUAD patients, especially those infected with COVID-19, who should avoid medicating TMPRSS2 inhibitors, such as ginsenosides to gain prophylactic and therapeutic benefits against COVID-19.

The antihypertensive potential of flavonoids from Chinese Herbal Medicine: A review

With the coming of the era of the aging population, hypertension has become a global health burden to be dealt with. Although there are multiple drugs and procedures to control the symptoms of hypertension, the management of it is still a long-term process, and the side effects of conventional drugs pose a burden on patients. Flavonoids, common compounds found in fruits and vegetables as secondary metabolites, are active components in Chinese Herbal Medicine. The flavonoids are proved to have cardiovascular benefits based on a plethora of animal experiments over the last decade. Thus, the flavonoids or flavonoid-rich plant extracts endowed with anti-hypertension activities and probable mechanisms were reviewed. It has been found that flavonoids may affect blood pressure in various ways. Moreover, despite the substantial evidence of the potential for flavonoids in the control of hypertension, it is not sufficient to support the clinical application of flavonoids as an adjuvant or core drug. So the synergistic effects of flavonoids with other drugs, pharmacokinetic studies, clinical trials and the safety of flavonoids are also incorporated in the discussion. It is believed that more breakthrough studies are needed. Overall, this review may shed some new light on the explicit recognition of the mechanisms of anti-hypertension actions of flavonoids, pointing out the limitations of relevant research at the current stage and the aspects that should be strengthened in future researches.

Comparative Analysis of Volatile Terpenes and Terpenoids in the Leaves of Pinus Species-A Potentially Abundant Renewable Resource

Pinaceae plants are widely distributed in the world, and the resources of pine leaves are abundant. In the extensive literature concerning Pinus species, there is much data on the composition and the content of essential oil of leaves. Still, a detailed comparative analysis of volatile terpenes and terpenoids between different species is missing. In this paper, headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to determine the volatile terpenes and terpenoids of typical Pinus species in China. A total of 46 volatile terpenes and terpenoids were identified, and 12 common compounds were found, which exhibited a great diversity in the leaves of Pinus species. According to the structures and properties of the compounds, all those compounds can be classified into four categories, namely monoterpenes, oxygenated terpenes, terpene esters, and sesquiterpenes. The results of principal component analysis and cluster analysis showed that the leaves of the six Pinus species could be divided into two groups. The species and contents of volatile terpenes and terpenoids in the leaves were quite different. The results not only provide a reference for the utilization of pine leaves resource, but also bring a broader vision on the biodiversity.

From winery by-product to healthy product: bioavailability, redox signaling and oxidative stress modulation by wine pomace product

The wine pomace is the main winery by-products that suppose an economic and environmental problem and their use as a functional ingredient are being increasingly recognized as a good and inexpensive source of bioactive compounds. In this sense, it is known the potential health properties of wine pomace products in the prevention of disorders associated with oxidative stress and inflammation such as endothelial dysfunction, hypertension, hyperglycemia, diabetes, obesity. Those effects are due to the bioactive compounds of wine pomace and the mechanisms concern especially modulation of antioxidant/prooxidant activity, improvement of nitric oxide bioavailability, reduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines and modulation of antioxidant/inflammatory signal pathways. This review mainly summarizes the mechanisms of wine pomace products as modulators of oxidative status involved in cell pathologies as well as their potential therapeutic use for cardiovascular diseases. For this purpose, the review provides an overview of the findings related to the wine pomace bioactive compounds profile, their bioavailability and the action mechanisms for maintaining the redox cell balance involved in health benefits. The review suggests an important role for wine pomace product in cardiovascular diseases prevention and their regular food intake may attenuate the development and progression of comorbidities associated with cardiovascular diseases.

Essential Oil Phytocomplex Activity, a Review with a Focus on Multivariate Analysis for a Network Pharmacology-Informed Phytogenomic Approach

Thanks to omic disciplines and a systems biology approach, the study of essential oils and phytocomplexes has been lately rolling on a faster track. While metabolomic fingerprinting can provide an effective strategy to characterize essential oil contents, network pharmacology is revealing itself as an adequate, holistic platform to study the collective effects of herbal products and their multi-component and multi-target mediated mechanisms. Multivariate analysis can be applied to analyze the effects of essential oils, possibly overcoming the reductionist limits of bioactivity-guided fractionation and purification of single components. Thanks to the fast evolution of bioinformatics and database availability, disease-target networks relevant to a growing number of phytocomplexes are being developed. With the same potential actionability of pharmacogenomic data, phytogenomics could be performed based on relevant disease-target networks to inform and personalize phytocomplex therapeutic application.

Zi Shen Huo Luo Formula Enhances the Therapeutic Effects of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors on Hypertensive Left Ventricular Hypertrophy by Interfering With Aldosterone Breakthrough and Affecting Caveolin-1/Mineralocorticoid Receptor Colocalization and Downstream Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Signaling

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an important characteristic of hypertensive heart disease. Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers have been shown to be effective drugs for the reversal of LVH. Clinical and experimental studies have shown that Zi Shen Huo Luo Formula (ZSHLF) can improve the efficacy of perindopril in the treatment of hypertensive LVH, but its mechanism is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the possible mechanism to improve the efficacy of perindopril. First, we identified 23 compounds in ZSHLF by ultra performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis, among which ferulic acid, caffeic acid, vanillic acid, berberine, rutin, quercetin, kaempferol, stachydrine, and tiliroside have been reported to reduce blood pressure and exhibit cardioprotective effects. Second, we treated spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) with perindopril and ZSHLF for 12 continuous weeks and found that chronic use of perindopril could increase the aldosterone (ALD) levels and cause aldosterone breakthrough (ABT). ZSHLF combined with perindopril reduced the ALD levels, interfered with ABT, decreased blood pressure, improved left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and decreased the collagen volume fraction; these effects were superior to those of perindopril alone. In vitro experiments, ALD-induced cardiomyocytes (H9c2 cells) and cardiac fibroblasts were treated with ZSHLF-containing serum, which suppressed ALD-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and cardiac fibroblast proliferation, increased mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and Cav-1 colocalization and decreased phosphorylated epidermal growth factor receptor (pEGFR) and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK) protein expression the cells. In conclusion, ZSHLF can interfere with ABT and affect the pathological role of ALD by affecting MR and Cav-1 interactions and EGFR/ERK signaling pathway. These effects represent a possible mechanism by which ZSHLF improves the efficacy of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) in hypertensive LVH treatment. However, the major bioactive components or metabolites responsible for the effects and the implications of these findings in patients need further verification.

Angiotensin-I-Converting Enzyme Inhibitory Activity of Coumarins from Angelica decursiva

The bioactivity of ten traditional Korean Angelica species were screened by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) assay in vitro. Among the crude extracts, the methanol extract of Angelica decursiva whole plants exhibited potent inhibitory effects against ACE. In addition, the ACE inhibitory activity of coumarins 1–5, 8–18 was evaluated, along with two phenolic acids (6, 7) obtained from A. decursiva. Among profound coumarins, 11–18 were determined to manifest marked inhibitory activity against ACE with IC₅₀ values of 4.68–20.04 µM. Compounds 12, 13, and 15 displayed competitive inhibition against ACE. Molecular docking studies confirmed that coumarins inhibited ACE via many hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions with catalytic residues and zinc ion of C- and N-domain ACE that blocked the catalytic activity of ACE. The results derived from these computational and in vitro experiments give additional scientific support to the anecdotal use of A. decursiva in traditional medicine to treat cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension.

New Insights into Bioactive Compounds of Traditional Chinese Medicines for Insulin Resistance Based on Signaling Pathways

Type 2 diabetes is a serious metabolic disease as a long-term threat to human health. Insulin resistance is not only the basis and major feature of type 2 diabetes, but also the main etiology of diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and coronary heart disease. It has been shown that Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs) play an important role in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, through attenuating insulin resistance, whereas the mechanism involved is not yet well understood. Therefore, it is important to elucidate the pharmacological mechanism of these bioactive compounds so that one can pave the way for the modernization of TCMs. In this review, we focus on the recent progresses of some bioactive ingredients from TCMs with different functional groups, which exhibit therapeutic potential for the treatment of diabetic insulin resistance. It is expected that this review can provide new references for developing TCM-derived drugs against diabetes and insulin resistance in the future.

Rapidly screening of α-glucosidase inhibitors from Dioscorea opposita Thunb. peel based on rGO@Fe3O4 nanocomposites microreactor

Present study aimed to immobilise the α-glucosidase on suitable supports to construct enzymatic microreactors and their subsequent applicability in efficient inhibitor screening from the Chinese Yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb.) peel. A type of lamellar and porous composites (rGO@Fe3O4) were synthesised with a facile one-step solvothermal method and employed as carriers to construct enzymatic microreactors for screening α-glucosidase ligand from the Chinese Yam peel in league with the high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). The immobilisation amount of α-glucosidase on rGO@Fe3O4 under the optimised conditions was about 40 μg α-glucosidase/mg carriers. Furthermore, the binding capacities of screened inhibitors, 2,4-dimethoxy-6,7-dihydroxyphenanthrene and batatasin I, were 35.6 and 68.2%, respectively. Hence, considering their high screening efficiency and excellent magnetic separation ability, these as-prepared nanocomposite consisting of rGO and Fe3O4 may be potential supports for the enzyme (such as α-glucosidase) immobilisation for rapid α-glucosidase inhibitors screening from the diverse nature resources.