Chemical constituents from Schisandra sphenanthera and their cytotoxic activity

Optimization of the Extraction Process and Biological Activities of Triterpenoids of Schisandra sphenanthera from Different Medicinal Parts and Growth Stages

Schisandra sphenanthera Rehd. et Wils., as a traditional Chinese medicine, has important medicinal value. In the market, the availability of the fruit of S. sphenanthera mainly relies on wild picking, but many canes and leaves are discarded during wild collection, resulting in a waste of resources. The canes and leaves of S. sphenanthera contain various bioactive ingredients and can be used as spice, tea, and medicine and so present great utilization opportunities. Therefore, it is helpful to explore the effective components and biological activities of the canes and leaves to utilize S. sphenanthera fully. In this study, the response surface method with ultrasound was used to extract the total triterpenoids from the canes and leaves of S. sphenanthera at different stages. The content of total triterpenoids in the leaves at different stages was higher than that in the canes. The total triterpenoids in the canes and leaves had strong antioxidant and antibacterial abilities. At the same time, the antibacterial activity of the total triterpenoids against Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was stronger than that against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. This study provides the foundation for the development and utilization of the canes and leaves that would relieve the shortage of fruit resources of S. sphenanthera.

Tissue-specific transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveal candidate genes for lignan biosynthesis in the medicinal plant Schisandra sphenanthera

Schisandra sphenanthera is an extremely important medicinal plant, and its main medicinal component is bioactive lignans. The S. sphenanthera fruit is preferred by the majority of consumers, and the root, stem, and leaf are not fully used. To better understand the lignan metabolic pathway, transcriptome and metabolome analyses were performed on the four major tissues of S. sphenanthera. A total of 167,972,229 transcripts and 91,215,760 unigenes with an average length of 752 bp were identified. Tissue-specific gene analysis revealed that the root had the highest abundance of unique unigenes (9703), and the leaves had the lowest (189). Transcription factor analysis showed that MYB-, bHLH- and ERF-transcription factors, which played important roles in the regulation of secondary metabolism, showed rich expression patterns and may be involved in the regulation of processes involved in lignan metabolism. In different tissues, lignans were preferentially enriched in fruit and roots by gene expression profiles related to lignan metabolism and relative lignan compound content. Furthermore, schisandrin B is an important compound in S. sphenanthera. According to weighted gene co-expression network analysis, PAL1, C4H-2, CAD1, CYB8, OMT27, OMT57, MYB18, bHLH3, and bHLH5 can be related to the accumulation of lignans in S. sphenanthera fruit, CCR5, SDH4, CYP8, CYP20, and ERF7 can be related to the accumulation of lignans in S. sphenanthera roots. In this study, transcriptome sequencing and targeted metabolic analysis of lignans will lay a foundation for the further study of their biosynthetic genes.

Four new lignans obtained from the leaves of Schisandra cauliflora and their effect on skeletal muscle cell proliferation

Plants of the Schisandra genus are commonly used in folk medicinal remedies. Some Schisandra species and their lignans have been reported to improve muscle strength. In the present study, four new lignans, named schisacaulins A-D, together with three previously described compounds ananonin B, alismoxide, and pregomisin were isolated from the leaves of S. cauliflora. Their chemical structures were determined by extensive analyses of HR-ESI-MS, NMR, and ECD spectra. Schisacaulin D and alismoxide significantly stimulated skeletal muscle cell proliferation by increasing the number of fused myotubes and expression of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) which may be good candidates for the treatment of sarcopenia.

Dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans from the family Schisandraceae: A review of phytochemistry, structure-activity relationship, and hepatoprotective effects

Liver injury is a common pathological process characterized by massive degeneration and abnormal death of liver cells. With increase in dead cells and necrosis, liver injury eventually leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), hepatic fibrosis, and even hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Consequently, it is necessary to treat liver injury and to prevent its progression. The drug Bicylol is widely employed in China to treat chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and has therapeutic potential for liver injury. It is the derivative of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans extracted from Schisandra chinensis (SC). The Schisandraceae family is a rich source of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans, which possesses potential liver protective activity. This study aimed to comprehensively summarize the phytochemistry, structure-activity relationship and molecular mechanisms underlying the liver protective activities of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans from the Schisandraceae family. Here, we had discussed the analysis of absorption or permeation properties of 358 compounds based on Lipinski's rule of five. So far, 358 dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans have been reported, with 37 of them exhibited hepatoprotective effects. The molecular mechanism of the active compounds mainly involves antioxidative stress, anti-inflammation and autophagy through Kelch-like ECH-associating protein 1/nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2/antioxidant response element (Keap1/Nrf2/ARE), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-кB), and transforming growth factor β (TGF-β)/Smad 2/3 signaling pathways. This review is expected to provide scientific ideas for future research related to developing and utilizing the dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans from Schisandraceae family.

ANO1-downregulation induced by schisandrathera D: a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of prostate and oral cancers

Anoctamin 1 (ANO1), a drug target for various cancers, including prostate and oral cancers, is an intracellular calcium-activated chloride ion channel that plays various physiopathological roles, especially in the induction of cancer growth and metastasis. In this study, we tested a novel compound isolated from Schisandra sphenanthera, known as schisandrathera D, for its inhibitory effect on ANO1. Schisandrathera D dose-dependently suppressed the ANO1 activation-mediated decrease in fluorescence of yellow fluorescent protein; however, it did not affect the adenosine triphosphate-induced increase in the intracellular calcium concentration or forskolin-induced cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator activity. Specifically, schisandrathera D gradually decreased the levels of ANO1 protein and significantly reduced the cell viability in ANO1-expressing cells when compared to those in ANO1-knockout cells. These effects could be attributed to the fact that schisandrathera D displayed better binding capacity to ANO1 protein than the previously known ANO1 inhibitor, Ani9. Finally, schisandrathera D increased the levels of caspase-3 and cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1, thereby indicating that its anticancer effect is mediated through apoptosis. Thus, this study highlights that schisandrathera D, which reduces ANO1 protein levels, has apoptosis-mediated anticancer effects in prostate and oral cancers, and thus, can be further developed into an anticancer agent.

Crystal structure of (3a7R,13bR)-3-((1R)-1-hydroxy-1-(5-methyl-6-oxo-3,6-dihydro-2H-pyran-2-yl)ethyl)-3a,11,11,13b-tetramethyl-2,3,3a,4,5,11,11a,12,13,13b-decahydroindeno[5′,4′:4,5] cyclohepta[1,2-c]oxepin-9(1H)-one, C30H40O5

C30H40O5, orthorhombic, P212121 (no. 19), a = 6.5012(3) Å, b = 15.3297(7) Å, c = 21.8138(14) Å, V = 2672.3(2) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt (F) = 0.0537, wRref (F 2) = 0.1355, T = 273(2) K.

Review of lignans from 2019 to 2021: Newly reported compounds, diverse activities, structure-activity relationships and clinical applications

Lignans, with various biological activities, such as antitumor, antioxidant, antibacterial, and antiviral activities, are widely distributed in nature and mainly exist in the xylem of plants. In this paper, we summarized the structures and bioactivities of lignans reported in recent years (2019-2021) from five parts, including (1) a summary and classification of newly reported compounds; (2) the pharmacological activities of lignans; (3) molecular resources and activity distribution; (4) the structure-activity relationships; and (5) the clinical application of lignans. This review covers all undescribed compounds that were reported within the covered period of time and all bioactivity data about previously isolated lignans. The distribution of lignans in different plants and families is visualized, which improves the efficiency of searching for specific molecules. The diverse activities of different types of lignans provide an important reference for the rapid screening of these compounds. Discussion about the structure-activity relationships of lignans provides a direction for the structural modification of skeleton molecules. Combined with the clinical application of such molecules, this work will provide a valuable reference for pharmaceutical chemists.

Therapeutic potential of naturally occurring lignans as anticancer agents

Cancer as a long-lasting and dramatic pandemic affects almost a third of the human being worldwide. At present, chemotherapy is the main clinical treatment strategy, but it is difficult to achieve satisfactory efficacy due to drug resistance and side effects. Natural products are becoming increasingly popular in cancer therapy due to their potent broad-spectrum anticancer potency and slight side effects. Lignans are complex diphenolic compounds, comprising a family of secondary metabolites existing widely in plants. Naturally occurring lignans have the potential to act on cancer cells by a range of mechanisms of action and could inhibit the colony formation, arrest the cell cycle in different phases, induce apoptosis, and suppress migration, providing privileged scaffolds for the discovery of novel anticancer agents. In recent five years, a variety of naturally occurring lignans were isolated and screened for their in vitro and/or in vivo anticancer efficacy, and some of them exhibited promising potential. This review has systematically summarized the resources, anticancer activity, and mechanisms of action of naturally occurring lignans, covering articles published between January 2017 and January 2022.

Novel Marine Secondary Metabolites Worthy of Development as Anticancer Agents: A Review

Secondary metabolites from marine sources have a wide range of biological activity. Marine natural products are promising candidates for lead pharmacological compounds to treat diseases that plague humans, including cancer. Cancer is a life-threatening disorder that has been difficult to overcome. It is a long-term illness that affects both young and old people. In recent years, significant attempts have been made to identify new anticancer drugs, as the existing drugs have been useless due to resistance of the malignant cells. Natural products derived from marine sources have been tested for their anticancer activity using a variety of cancer cell lines derived from humans and other sources, some of which have already been approved for clinical use, while some others are still being tested. These compounds can assault cancer cells via a variety of mechanisms, but certain cancer cells are resistant to them. As a result, the goal of this review was to look into the anticancer potential of marine natural products or their derivatives that were isolated from January 2019 to March 2020, in cancer cell lines, with a focus on the class and type of isolated compounds, source and location of isolation, cancer cell line type, and potency (IC₅₀ values) of the isolated compounds that could be a guide for drug development.