Euphorbiasteroid Abrogates EGFR and Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Cells to Impart Anticancer Activity

EGFR and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways play a prominent role in tumor progression in various human cancers including non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Transactivation and crosstalk between the EGFR and Wnt/β-catenin pathways may contribute to the aggressiveness of cancers. Targeting these oncogenic pathways with small molecules is an attractive approach to counteract various types of cancers. In this study, we demonstrate the effect of euphorbiasteroid (EPBS) on the EGFR and Wnt/β-catenin pathways in NSCLC cells. EPBS induced preferential cytotoxicity toward A549 (wildtype EGFR-expressing) cells over PC-9 (mutant EGFR-expressing) cells. EPBS suppressed the expression of EGFR, Wnt3a, β-catenin, and FZD-1, and the reduction in β-catenin levels was found to be mediated through the activation of GSK-3β. EPBS reduced the phosphorylation of GSK-3β^S9 with a parallel increase in β-TrCP and phosphorylation of GSK-3β^Y216. Lithium chloride treatment increased the phosphorylation of GSK-3β^S9 and nuclear localization of β-catenin, whereas EPBS reverted these effects. Forced expression or depletion of EGFR in NSCLC cells increased or decreased the levels of Wnt3a, β-catenin, and FZD-1, respectively. Overall, EPBS abrogates EGFR and Wnt/β-catenin pathways to impart its anticancer activity in NSCLC cells.

In Silico, In Vitro, and In Vivo Analysis of Tanshinone IIA and Cryptotanshinone from Salvia miltiorrhiza as Modulators of Cyclooxygenase-2/mPGES-1/Endothelial Prostaglandin EP3 Pathway

Tanshinone IIA (TIIA) and cryptotanshinone (CRY) from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge were investigated for their inhibitory activity against the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)/microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1)/endothelial prostaglandin 3 (EP3) pathway using in silico, in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo assays. From the analysis of the docking poses, both diterpenoids were able to interact significantly with COX-2, 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO), platelet-activating factor receptor (PAFR), and mPGES-1. This evidence was further corroborated by data obtained from a cell-free assay, where CRY displayed a significant inhibitory potency against mPGES-1 (IC50 = 1.9 ± 0.4 µM) and 5-LO (IC50 = 7.1 µM), while TIIA showed no relevant inhibition of these targets. This was consistent with their activity to increase mice bleeding time (CRY: 2.44 ± 0.13 min, p ≤ 0.001; TIIA: 2.07 ± 0.17 min p ≤ 0.01) and with the capability to modulate mouse clot retraction (CRY: 0.048 ± 0.011 g, p ≤ 0.01; TIIA: 0.068 ± 0.009 g, p ≤ 0.05). For the first time, our results show that TIIA and, in particular, CRY are able to interact significantly with the key proteins involved not only in the onset of inflammation but also in platelet activity (and hyper-reactivity). Future preclinical and clinical investigations, together with this evidence, could provide the scientific basis to consider these compounds as an alternative therapeutic approach for thrombotic- and thromboembolic-based diseases.

Therapeutic and Biomedical Potentialities of Terpenoids – A Review

Terpenoids are the most diverse and largest class of chemicals of the innumerable plant-based compounds. Plants carry out a number of essential growth and production functions using terpenoid metabolites. In contrast, most terpenoids are used in the abiotic and biotic systems for complex chemical interactions and defense. Terpenoids derived from plants mostly used humans for pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries in the past. However, recently biofuel products have been developed by terpenoids. The metabolism of high-quality terpenoids in plants and microbes is facilitated in synthetic biology by genomic resources and emerging tools. Further focus has been given to the ecological value of terpenoids for establishing effective pesticide control approaches and abiotic stress protection. The awareness of the diverse metabolic and molecular regulatory networks for terpenoid biosynthesis needs to be increased continuously in all these efforts. This review gives an overview and highlights current improvements in our understanding of the organization, regulation, and diversification of core and specialized terpenoid metabolic pathways and discusses the prominent therapeutic roles of terpenoids. This review provides an overview and highlights recent literature in our understanding about the biomedical and therapeutic importance of terpenoids, regulation as well as the diversion of core and specialized metabolized terpenoid pathways.

Nitrogen-Containing Heterocycles as Anticancer Agents: An Overview

Background:

Cancer is spreading all over the world, and it is becoming the leading cause of major deaths. Today’s most difficult task for every researcher is to invent a new drug that can treat cancer with minimal side effects. Many factors, including pollution, modern lifestyle and food habits, exposure to oncogenic agents or radiations, enhanced industrialization, etc. can cause cancer. Treatment of cancer is done by various methods that include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and immunotherapy in combination or singly along with kinase inhibitors. Most of the anti-cancer drugs use the concept of kinase inhibition.

Objective:

The number of drugs being used in chemotherapy has heterocycles as their basic structure in spite of various side effects. Medicinal chemists are focusing on nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds like pyrrole, pyrrolidine, pyridine, imidazole, pyrimidines, pyrazole, indole, quinoline, oxadiazole, azole, benzimidazole, etc. as the key building blocks to develop active biological compounds. The aim of this study is to attempt to compile a dataset of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic anti-cancer drugs.

Methods:

We adopted a structural search on notorious journal publication websites and electronic databases such as Bentham Science, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, USFDA, etc. for the collection of peer-reviewed research and review articles for the present review. The quality papers were retrieved, studied, categorized into different sections, analyzed and used for article writing.

Conclusion:

As per FDA databases, nitrogen-based heterocycles in the drug design are almost 60% of unique small-molecule drugs. Some of the nitrogen-containing heterocyclic anti-cancer drugs are Axitinib, Bosutinib, Cediranib, Dasatanib (Sprycel®), Erlotinib (Tarceva®), Gefitinib (Iressa®), Imatinib (Gleevec®), Lapatinib (Tykerb ®), Linifanib, Sorafenib (Nexavar®), Sunitinib (Sutent®), Tivozanib, etc. In the present review, we shall focus on the overview of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic active compounds as anti-cancer agents.

Alpha-Glucosidase and Alpha-Amylase Inhibitory Activities, Molecular Docking, and Antioxidant Capacities of Salvia aurita Constituents

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most dangerous metabolic diseases with a high rate of mortality worldwide. It is well known that insulin resistance and deficiency in insulin production from pancreatic β-cells are the main characteristics of DM. Due to the detrimental side effects of the current treatment, there is a considerable need to develop new effective antidiabetic drugs, especially alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase inhibitors with lesser adverse effects. These inhibitors are known to be directly involved in the delay of carbohydrate digestion, resulting in a reduction of glucose absorption rate and, consequently, reducing the postprandial rise of plasma glucose, which can reduce the risk of long-term diabetes complications. Furthermore, natural products are well-known sources for the discovery of new bioactive compounds that can serve as scaffolds for drug discovery, including that of new antidiabetic drugs. The phytochemical investigation of Salvia aurita collected from Hogobach Pass, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa (SA), yielded four known abietane diterpenes namely carnosol (1), rosmanol (2), 7-methoxyrosmanol (3), 12-methoxycarnosic acid (4), and one flavonoid named 4,7-dimethylapigenin (5). Structural characterization of these isolated compounds was conducted using 1 and 2D NMR, in comparison with reported spectroscopic data. These compounds are reported for the first time from S. aurita. The biological evaluation of the isolated compound against alpha-glucosidase exhibited strong inhibitory activities for 3 and 2 with the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 4.2 ± 0.7 and 16.4 ± 1.1 µg/mL respectively, while 4 and 1 demonstrated strong alpha-amylase inhibitory activity amongst the isolated compounds with IC50 values of 16.2 ± 0.3 and 19.8 ± 1.4 µg/mL. Molecular docking analysis confirms the strong inhibitory activity of 3 against alpha-glucosidase. Additionally, excellent antioxidant capacities were displayed by 2, 1, and 3, respectively, with oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) (25.79 ± 0.01; 23.96 ± 0.01; 23.94 ± 0.02) mM Trolox equivalent (TE)/g; 1 and 2 as ferric-ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) (3.92 ± 0.002; 1.52 ± 0.002) mM ascorbic acid equivalent (AAE)/g; 5 and 2 as Trolox equivalent absorbance capacity (TEAC) (3.19 ± 0.003; 2.06 ± 0.003) mM TE/g. The methanolic extract of S. aurita is a rich source of abietane diterpenes with excellent antioxidant and antidiabetic activities that can be useful to modulate oxidative stress and might possibly be excellent candidates for the management of diabetes. This is the first scientific report on the phytochemical isolation and biological evaluation of the alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase inhibitory activities of Salvia aurita.

Bioactive constituents of Salvia chrysophylla Stapf

The dichloromethane extract of the aerial parts of Salvia chrysophylla Stapf (Lamiaceae), which is an endemic species to south-western Anatolia, was studied for non-volatile secondary metabolites for the first time in this study. Structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated as sclareol, β-sitosterol, salvigenin, oleanolic acid and ursolic acid. The lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity and the DPPH free radical scavenging activity of the pure isolates were investigated to establish their antioxidant potential. Their anticholinesterase activity was carried out by the Ellman assay against both enzymes, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase, and diterpene sclareol exhibited fairly good activity against both the enzymes while the two triterpenoids oleanolic and ursolic acids exhibited selective activity against AChE.