Crocus sativus L. Causes a Non Apoptotic Calpain Dependent Death in C6 Rat Glioma Cells, Exhibiting a Synergistic Effect with Temozolomide

Identification of the therapeutic mechanism of the saffron crocus on glioma through network pharmacology and bioinformatics analysis

Saffron crocus is a herbal medicine of traditional Tibetan medicine (TTM). Saffron extract has been indicated to inhibit tumor cell growth and promote tumor cell apoptosis in a variety of cancers, including glioma, but the specific mechanism is not clear. To study the possible mechanism of saffron action on glioma, network pharmacology and bioinformatics analysis methods were used in this study. We used the online database to obtain the active ingredients of saffron and their targets. Glioma-related targets were also acquired from online database. We intersected drug targets with glioma-related targets and conducted PPI network analysis to obtain network core genes. Then, we obtained RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database for glioma patients. Through different expression analysis and lasso regression, further screening of core genes in the network was conducted, and a prognostic model was established. The sample was divided into two groups with high and low risk using this model. The RNA-seq data from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) database were used to further validate our prediction model. Then, we explored the difference in pathways enrichment between high-risk patients and low-risk patients and calculated the difference in immune microenvironment between the two groups. Finally, we used scRNA-seq data in the CGGA database to analyze the cell types in which the model gene is mainly enriched and predicted the cell types which saffron effected on.

Redox modulation by plant polyphenols targeting vitagenes for chemoprevention and therapy: Relevance to novel anti-cancer interventions and mini-brain organoid technology

The scientific community, recently, has focused notable attention on the chemopreventive and therapeutic effects of dietary polyphenols for human health. Emerging evidence demonstrates that polyphenols, flavonoids and vitamins counteract and neutralize genetic and environmental stressors, particularly oxidative stress and inflammatory process closely connected to cancer initiation, promotion and progression. Interestingly, polyphenols can exert antioxidant or pro-oxidant cytotoxic effects depending on their endogenous concentration. Notably, polyphenols at high dose act as pro-oxidants in a wide type of cancer cells by inhibiting Nrf2 pathway and the expression of antioxidant vitagenes, such as NAD(P)H-quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1), glutathione transferase (GT), GPx, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), sirtuin-1 (Sirt1) and thioredoxin (Trx) system which play an essential role in the metabolism of reactive oxygen species (ROS), detoxification of xenobiotics and inhibition of cancer progression, by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest according to the hormesis approach. Importantly, mutagenesis of Nrf2 pathway can exacerbate its "dark side" role, representing a crucial event in the initiation stage of carcinogenesis. Herein, we review the hormetic effects of polyphenols and nanoincapsulated-polyphenols in chemoprevention and treatment of brain tumors via activation or inhibition of Nrf2/vitagenes to suppress carcinogenesis in the early stages, and thus inhibit its progression. Lastly, we discuss innovative preclinical approaches through mini-brain tumor organoids to study human carcinogenesis, from basic cancer research to clinical practice, as promising tools to recapitulate the arrangement of structural neuronal tissues and biological functions of the human brain, as well as test drug toxicity and drive personalized and precision medicine in brain cancer.

Immunometabolism modulation, a new trick of edible and medicinal plants in cancer treatment

The edible and medicinal plants (EMPs) are becoming an abundant source for cancer prevention and treatment since the natural and healthy trend for modern human beings. Currently, there are more than one hundred species of EMPs widely used and listed by the national health commission of China, and most of them indicate immune or metabolic regulation potential in cancer treatment with numerous studies over the past two decades. In the present review, we focused on the metabolic influence in immunocytes and tumor microenvironment, including immune response, immunosuppressive factors and cancer cells, discussing the immunometabolic potential of EMPs in cancer treatment. There are more than five hundred references collected and analyzed through retrieving pharmacological studies deposited in PubMed by medical subject headings and the corresponding names derived from pharmacopoeia of China as a sole criterion. Finally, the immunometabolism modulation of EMPs was sketch out implying an immunometabolic control in cancer treatment.

Nano delivery of natural substances as prospective autophagy modulators in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is the most destructive type of malignant brain tumor in humans due to cancer relapse. Latest studies have indicated that cancer cells are more reliant on autophagy for survival than non-cancer cells. Autophagy is entitled as programmed cell death type II and studies imply that it is a comeback of cancer cells to innumerable anti-cancer therapies. To diminish the adverse consequences of chemotherapeutics, numerous herbs of natural origin have been retained in cancer treatments. Additionally, autophagy induction occurs via their tumor suppressive actions that could cause cell senescence and increase apoptosis-independent cell death. However, most of the drugs have poor solubility and thus nano drug delivery systems possess excessive potential to improve the aqueous solubility and bioavailability of encapsulated drugs. There is a pronounced need for more therapies for glioblastoma treatment and hereby, the fundamental mechanisms of natural autophagy modulators in glioblastoma are prudently reviewed in this article.

Anticancer Activity of Essential Oils and Other Extracts from Aromatic Plants Grown in Greece

Aromatic plants have a long and significant history in the traditional medicine of many countries. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in investigating the biological properties of aromatic plant extracts mainly due to their diversity, high availability, and low toxicity. Greece is abundant in aromatic plants, which can be attributed to the country’s geographical position, the morphology of its landscape, and its numerous mountainous and insular areas. In the past 15 years, a number of aromatic plant extracts of Greek origin have been studied for their bioactivities, including their antiproliferative potential against different types of cancer. Although the pharmacological activities of specific species of Greek origin have been reviewed before, no gathered information on explicitly Greek species exist. In this review, we summarize existing data on the antiproliferative activity of extracts isolated from Greek aromatic plants and discuss their molecular mode(s) of action, where available, in order to identify promising extracts for future research and link chemical constituents responsible for their activity. We conclude that essentials oils are the most frequently studied plant extracts exhibiting high diversity in their composition and anticancer potential, but also other extracts appear to be worthy of further investigation for cancer chemoprevention.