Onco-therapeutic Effect of Novel Triterpenoid Compound Oleanolic Acid Isolated and Characterized from the Methanolic Extract of Coldenia procumbens (Linn.)

India is considered a hub for a wide range of phytochemicals due to its rich biodiversity, which indeed flourished with many folk medicines and treatments. Phytochemicals are secondary metabolites synthesized in plants to protect themselves from deteriorating environmental stress and defense against pathogens. In the present study, we aimed to explore the strong anticancer potential of the bioactive compound present in the leaf extract of Coldenia procumbens (L.). The bioactive compound oleanolic acid was first time reported in the plant and was successfully isolated, characterized with various spectroscopic analyses. The in vitro study results explored that oleanolic acid has shown a potent cytotoxic effect against human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines with a low IC50 value (40.66μg/mL) and induced apoptotic cell death. Overall, the present findings clearly demonstrated that the natural triterpenoid compound oleanolic acid isolated from C. procumbens showed a potent cytotoxic effect against HepG2 cells and explored the strong anticancer potential against liver cancer.

Ethnomedicinal Uses, Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Properties of Suregada Genus: A Review

Plants of the Suregada Roxb. ex Rottler (formerly Gelonium Roxb. ex Willd) are utilized to treat various ailments, namely, hepatic, gum diseases, pyrexia, eczema, and venereal diseases. This review links the reported compounds to ethnomedicinal uses through pharmacological activities. The compounds possess anticancer, anti-allergic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-HIV properties. From the previous reports, 32 known species of the Suregada genus have been investigated morphologically, and nine were investigated for their phytochemistry and pharmacology. Phytochemistry, ethnomedicinal, and pharmacological uses of the other 23 Suregada species are not known and/or not reported. In this review, abietane diterpenoids are the main compounds expressed by the Suregada, accounting for 71 of the 114 reported compounds. Ten triterpenoids and sterols, one aliphatic, two lignans, five flavonoids, and twenty-one nitrogen-containing compounds have been reported from the genus.

Review On Documented Medicinal Plants Used For The Treatment Of Cancer

Background:

Cancer is a frightful disease and it is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Naturally derived compounds are gaining interest of research workers as they have less toxic side effects as compared to currently used treatments such as chemotherapy. Plants are the pool of chemical compounds which provides a promising future for research on cancer.

Objective:

This review paper provides updated information gathered on medicinal plants and isolated phytoconstituents used as anticancer agents and summarises the plant extracts and their isolated chemical constituents exhibiting anticancer potential on clinical trials.

Methods:

An extensive bibliographic investigation was carried out by analysing worldwide established scientific databases like SCOPUS, PUBMED, SCIELO, ScienceDirect, Springerlink, Web of Science, Wiley, SciFinder and Google Scholar etc. In next few decades, herbal medicine may become a new epoch of medical system.

Results:

Many researches are going on medicinal plants for the treatment of cancer but it is a time to increase further experimental studies on plant extracts and their chemical constituents to find out their mechanism of action at molecular level.

Conclusion:

The article may help many researchers to start off further experimentation that might lead to the drugs for the cancer treatment.

β-amyrin-induced apoptosis in Candida albicans triggered by calcium

The emergence of drug-resistant pathogens has urged researchers to discover alternatives for traditional antibiotics. β-amyrin, which is included in the category of triterpenoids extracted from plants, is known for its antimicrobial activity, although the underlying mechanism has not yet been revealed. This study was conducted to elucidate the antifungal mode of action of β-amyrin against Candida albicans. Based on the relevance between triterpenoids and oxidative molecules, reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentrations were detected, which showed a noticeable increment. Disruption of Ca²⁺ homeostasis in the cytosol was additionally analyzed, which was supported by interactions between two. Subsequently, decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, increment of mitochondrial Ca²⁺, and ROS concentration were monitored, which suggested mitochondrial dysfunction modulated by Ca²⁺. Further investigation confirmed oxidative damage through glutathione reduction and DNA fragmentation. Accumulation of lethal damages resulted in the activation of caspases and externalization of phosphatidylserine, indicating the induction of yeast apoptosis by β-amyrin in C. albicans.

A comprehensive review on phytochemistry, bioactivities, toxicity studies, and clinical studies on Ficus carica Linn. leaves

The leaves of Ficus carica Linn. (FC) have been widely used for medicine purposes since ancient times, and its decoction is consumed as tea. Many scientific papers have been published in the literature and the researchers across the world are still exploring the health benefits of FC leaves. In this review, we have collected the literature published since 2010 in the databases: Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, SciFinder, Google Scholar, Baidu Scholar and local classic herbal literature. The summary of the chemical constituents in FC leaves, biological activities, toxicity studies, and clinical studies carried out on FC leaves is provided in this review. In addition, the molecular mechanisms of the active constituents in FC leaves are also comprehended. FC leaves are reported to 126 constituents out of which the polyphenolic compounds are predominant. Many scientific studies have proven the antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anticholinesterase, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, and renoprotective activities. Many studies have carried out to provide the insights on molecular pathways involved in the biological activities of FC leaves. The toxicity studies have suggested that FC leaves exhibit toxicity only at very high doses. We believe this review serve as a comprehensive resource for those who are interested to understand the scientific evidence that support the medicinal values of FC leaves and also the research gaps to further improve the commercial value and health benefits of FC leaves.

Development and Validation of Nomograms Based on Gamma-Glutamyl Transpeptidase to Platelet Ratio for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Reveal Novel Prognostic Value and the Ratio Is Negatively Correlated With P38MAPK Expression

Background

Early prediction of recurrence and death risks is significant to the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. We aimed to develop and validate prognosis nomogram models based on the gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT)-to-platelet (PLT) ratio (GPR) for HCC and to explore the relationship between the GPR and inflammation-related signaling pathways.

Methods

All data were obtained from 2000 to 2012 in the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University. In the training cohort, factors included in the nomograms were determined by univariate and multivariate analyses. In the training and validation cohorts, the concordance index (C-index) and calibration curves were used to assess predictive accuracy, and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to assess discriminative ability. Clinical utility was evaluated using decision curve analysis. Moreover, improvement of the predictive accuracy of the nomograms was evaluated by calculating the decision curve analysis, the integrated discrimination improvement, and the net reclassification improvement. Finally, the relationship between the GPR and inflammation-related signaling pathways was evaluated using the independent-samples t-test.

Results

A larger tumor size and higher GPR were common independent risk factors for both disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in HCC (P < 0.05). Good agreement between our nomogram models' predictions and actual observations was detected by the C-index and calibration curves. Our nomogram models showed significantly better performance in predicting the HCC prognosis compared to other models (P < 0.05). Online webserver and scoring system tables were built based on the proposed nomogram for convenient clinical use. Notably, including the GPR greatly improved the predictive ability of our nomogram models (P < 0.05). In the validation cohort, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (P38MAPK) expression was significantly negatively correlated with the GPR (P < 0.01) and GGT (P = 0.039), but was not correlated with PLT levels (P = 0.063). And we found that P38MAPK can regulate the expression of GGT by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting experiments.

Conclusions

The dynamic nomogram based on the GPR provides accurate and effective prognostic predictions for HCC, and P38MAPK-GGT may be a suitable therapeutic target to improve the prognosis of HCC patients.

High Inflammatory Factor Grading Predicts Poor Disease-Free Survival in AJCC Stage I-II Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients After R0 Resection

Purpose

In this study, we established the inflammatory factor grade system (IFGs) based on the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) microenvironment to investigate the role of inflammatory factor grade (IFG) in predicting the prognosis of patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage I-II.

Patients and methods

We enrolled 87 HCC patients with AJCC stage I-II who underwent R0 resection between 2000 and 2012 and had paraffin-embedded specimens. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to investigate the expression of 12 inflammatory factors and then to establish the IFGs (grade A or B) based on the IHC data. Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier and Cox univariate/multivariate survival analyses were performed to examine the potential prognostic significance.

Results

Higher IFG (IFG-B) is significantly associated with greater tumor size (P=0.037), and IFG-B predicts a worse disease-free survival (DFS, P<0.001). Moreover, a platelet count (PLT) ≤100×10⁹/L, tumor size ≥5 cm, poor tumor differentiation, and IFG-B are independent risk factors for DFS.

Conclusion

Overall, by establishing a grading system for the level of inflammatory factors in the HCC microenvironment, IFG-B can effectively predict poor DFS in AJCC stage I-II HCC patients after R0 resection.

Assessment of anticancer activity of Pulicaria undulata on hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line

Searching for new sources of safe nutraceuticals antitumor drugs is an important issue. Consequentially, this study designed to assess the antitumor activity of Pulicaria undulata extract in vitro in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line. Aerial parts of P. undulata plants were collected, used for phytochemical analysis, and assessed for anticancer activity. The antitumor activity was evaluated through studying the cell viability and apoptotic pathway. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry phytochemical analysis revealed that P. undulata is a promising new source of several known antioxidant and antitumor compounds which could participate in drug development and exploration of alternative strategies to the harmful synthetic antitumor drugs. P. undulata stifled HepG2 cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Meanwhile, P. undulata tempted substantial apoptosis in HepG2 cells and enhanced the expression of miR-34a. However, the mRNA expression level of antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 was markedly decreased by P. undulata treatment. Moreover, P. undulata increased the protein expression of proapoptotic p53 and caspase 3/9 with reducing B-cell lymphoma-2 protein expression level. Thus, P. undulata induced apoptosis in the HepG2 cells by overexpression of miR-34a which regulates p53/B-cell lymphoma-2/caspases signaling pathway. These findings were well appreciated with morphological studies of cells treated with P. undulata. In conclusion, P. undulata could be a probable candidate agent for the initiation of cell apoptosis in HepG2 and thereby can serve as promising therapeutic agent for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma which should attract further studies.

Cloning and Characterization of Oxidosqualene Cyclases Involved in Taraxasterol, Taraxerol and Bauerenol Triterpene Biosynthesis in Taraxacum coreanum

Triterpenes, consisting of six isoprene units, are one of the largest classes of natural compounds in plants. The genus Taraxacum is in the family Asteraceae and is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. Various triterpenes, especially taraxerol and taraxasterol, are present in Taraxacum plants. Triterpene biosynthesis occurs through the action of oxidosqualene cyclase (OSC), which generates various types of triterpenes from 2,3-oxidosqualene after the rearrangement of the triterpene skeleton. However, no functional characterization of the OSC genes involved in triterpene biosynthesis, except for a lupeol synthase in Taraxacum officinale, has been performed. Taraxacum coreanum, or Korean dandelion, grows in Korea and China. Putative OSC genes in T. coreanum plants were isolated by transcriptome analysis, and four of these (TcOSC1, TcOSC2, TcOSC3 and TcOSC4) were functionally characterized by heterologous expression in yeast. Both TcOSC1 and TcOSC2 were closely related to dammarenediol-II synthases. TcOSC3 and TcOSC4 were strongly grouped with β-amyrin synthases. Functional analysis revealed that TcOSC1 produced several triterpenes, including taraxasterol; Ψ-taraxasterol; α-, β- and δ-amyrin; and dammarenediol-II. TcOSC2 catalyzed the production of bauerenol and another unknown triterpene, TcOSC3 catalyzed the production of β-amyrin. TcOSC4 catalyzed the production of taraxerol. Moreover, we identified taraxasterol, ψ-taraxasterol, taraxerol, lupeol, δ-amyrin, α-amyrin, β-amyrin and bauerenol in the roots and leaves of T. coreanum. Our results suggest that TcOSC1, TcOSC2, TcOSC3 and TcOSC4 are key triterpene biosynthetic enzymes in T. coreanum. These enzymes are novel triterpene synthases involved in the production of taraxasterol, bauerenol and taraxerol.

Identification of H2O2 induced oxidative stress associated microRNAs in HLE-B3 cells and their clinical relevance to the progression of age-related nuclear cataract

BACKGROUND

This study is aimed to screen out the microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with H₂O₂ induced oxidative stress in human lens epithelial B3 (HLE-B3) cell lines and investigate their relations with the progression of age-related nuclear cataract.

METHODS

H₂O₂ was used to induce oxidative stress in HLE-B3 cells. A genome-wide expression profiling of miRNAs in HLE-B3 cells was performed to select the differentially expressed miRNAs before and after H₂O₂ treatment. The selected miRNAs were validated by RT-PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Clinical specimens were divided into three groups according to the Lens Opacities Classification System III (LOCSIII) and the expression levels of the selected miRNAs were tested by RT-PCR in the three groups. Bioinformatics analyses were applied to predict the target genes of the miRNA hits and construct the miRNA regulatory network. The expression level of MAPK14 was analyzed by Western blot.

RESULTS

The H₂O₂ induced oxidative stress model of HLE-B3 cells was established. Nineteen upregulated and 30 downregulated miRNAs were identified as differentially expressed miRNAs. Seven of the total 49 were validated in the cell model. RT-PCR of the clinical samples showed that the expression levels of miR-34a-5p, miR-630 and miR-335-3p were closely related with the severity of nuclear opacity. The images taken from FISH confirmed the results of RT-PCR. There were 172 target genes of the three miRNAs clustered in the category of response to stress. The regulatory network demonstrated that 23 target genes were co-regulated by multiple miRNAs. MAPK14 was the target gene of three miRNAs and the result were verified by Western blot.

CONCLUSION

Up-regulation of miR-34a-5p and miR-630 and down-regulation of miR-335-3p are related with the progression of age-related nuclear cataract and the underlying mechanism awaits further functional research to reveal.