Purple corn extract (PCE) alleviates cigarette smoke (CS)-induced DNA damage in rodent blood cells by activation of AMPK/Foxo3a/MnSOD pathway

Drug discovery inspired by bioactive small molecules from nature

Natural products (NPs) have greatly contributed to the development of novel treatments for human diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders, and infections. Compared to synthetic chemical compounds, primary and secondary metabolites from medicinal plants, fungi, microorganisms, and our bodies are promising resources with immense chemical diversity and favorable properties for drug development. In addition to the well-validated significance of secondary metabolites, endogenous small molecules derived from central metabolism and signaling events have shown great potential as drug candidates due to their unique metabolite-protein interactions. In this short review, we highlight the values of NPs, discuss recent scientific and technological advances including metabolomics tools, chemoproteomics approaches, and artificial intelligence-based computation platforms, and explore potential strategies to overcome the current challenges in NP-driven drug discovery.

Human Endogenous Retroviruses: Friends and Foes in Urology Clinics

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are originated from ancient exogenous retroviruses, which infected human germ line cells millions of years ago. HERVs have generally lost their replication and retrotransposition abilities, but adopted physiological roles in human biology. Though mostly inactive, HERVs can be reactivated by internal and external factors such as inflammations and environmental conditions. Their aberrant expression can participate in various human malignancies with complex etiology. This review describes the features and functions of HERVs in urological subjects, such as urological cancers and human reproduction. It provides the current knowledge of the HERVs and useful insights helping practice in urology clinics.

The Impact of Oxidative Stress and AKT Pathway on Cancer Cell Functions and Its Application to Natural Products

Oxidative stress and AKT serine-threonine kinase (AKT) are responsible for regulating several cell functions of cancer cells. Several natural products modulate both oxidative stress and AKT for anticancer effects. However, the impact of natural product-modulating oxidative stress and AKT on cell functions lacks systemic understanding. Notably, the contribution of regulating cell functions by AKT downstream effectors is not yet well integrated. This review explores the role of oxidative stress and AKT pathway (AKT/AKT effectors) on ten cell functions, including apoptosis, autophagy, endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial morphogenesis, ferroptosis, necroptosis, DNA damage response, senescence, migration, and cell-cycle progression. The impact of oxidative stress and AKT are connected to these cell functions through cell function mediators. Moreover, the AKT effectors related to cell functions are integrated. Based on this rationale, natural products with the modulating abilities for oxidative stress and AKT pathway exhibit the potential to regulate these cell functions, but some were rarely reported, particularly for AKT effectors. This review sheds light on understanding the roles of oxidative stress and AKT pathway in regulating cell functions, providing future directions for natural products in cancer treatment.