Jaceosidin: A Natural Flavone with Versatile Pharmacological and Biological Activities

Nature always remains an inexhaustible source of treasures for mankind. It remains a mystery for every challenge until the completion of the challenge. While we talk about the complicated health issues, nature offers us a great variety of chemical scaffolds and their various moieties packed in the form of natural products e.g., plants, microorganisms (fungi, algae, protozoa), and terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates. This review article is an update about jaceosidin, a bioactive flavone, from genus Artemisia. This potentially active compound exhibits a variety of pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, antiallergic and anti-cancer activities. The bioactivities and the therapeutic action of jaceosidin, especially the modulation of different cell signaling pathways (ERK1/2, NF-κB, PI3K/Akt and ATM-Chk1/2) which become deregulated in various pathological disorders, have been focused here. The reported data suggest that the bioavailability of this anti-cancer compound should be enhanced by utilizing various chemical, biological and computational techniques. Moreover, it is recommended that researchers and scientists should work on exploring the mode of action of this particular flavone to precede it further as a potent anti-cancer compound.

Targeting key transcriptional factor STAT3 in colorectal cancer

In developed countries, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of malignant-related deaths. CRC is treatable cancer when diagnosed early; however, diagnosis at the advanced stage is associated with a poor prognosis. Although chemotherapy is generally very promising, STAT3 protein which is overexpressed and persistently activated in CRC cells is observed to be the major contributor of chemoresistance development. It has been shown to play a prominent and pathogenic role in CRC initiation, progression, and metastasis. While over the past few years, research has been focused on STAT3 which is expressed at the center of various oncogenic pathways. This review is a discussion of the oncogenic role of STAT3 in CRC and potential therapeutic STAT3 inhibitors and analogs used to control and treat CRC.

Germacrone: A Potent Secondary Metabolite with Therapeutic Potential in Metabolic Diseases, Cancer and Viral Infections

Natural products, an infinite reserve of bioactive molecules, will continue to serve humans as an important source of therapeutic agents. Germacrone is a bioactive natural compound found in the traditional medicinal plants of family Zingiberaceae. This multifaceted chemical entity has become a point of focus during recent years due to its numerous pharmacological applications, e.g., anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, anti-adipogenic, anti-androgenic, antimicrobial, insecticidal, and neuroprotective. Germacrone is an effective inducer of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in various cancers (breast, brain, liver, skin, prostate, gastric, and esophageal) via modulation of different cell signaling molecules and pathways involved in cancer proliferation. This is the first report highlighting the wide spectrum of pharmacological activities exhibited by germacrone. The reported data collected from various shreds of evidences recommend that this multifaceted compound could serve as a potential drug candidate in the near future.

ent-Kaurane-Based Diterpenoids, Dimers, and Meroditerpenoids from Isodon xerophilus

Eight new diterpenoids (1-8) with varied structures were isolated from the aerial parts of Isodon xerophilus. Among them, xerophilsin A (1) was found to be an unusual meroditerpenoid representing a hybrid of an ent-kauranoid and a long-chain aliphatic ester, xerophilsins B-D (2-4) are dimeric ent-kauranoids, while xerophilsins E-H (5-8) are new ent-kauranoids. The structures of 1-8 were elucidated mainly through the analyses of their spectroscopic data. The absolute configurations of 2, 6, and 8 were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and the configuration of C-16 in 7 was established through quantum chemical calculation of NMR chemical shifts, as well as modeling of key interproton distances. Bioactivity evaluation of all isolated compounds revealed that 2, 3, and 5 inhibited NO production in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells.

Eriocalyxin B Inhibits Adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes by Cell Cycle Arrest

Eriocalyxin B, an ent-Kaurene diterpenoid extracted from a traditional Chinese herb Isodon eriocalyx, has been shown to possess multifunctional activities such as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory. However, the function and mechanism of the compound in adipocyte differentiation is still unknown. Here we reported that eriocalyxin B blunted adipogenesis remarkably by inhibiting the accumulation of lipid droplets, triglycerides and the expressions of adipogenesis-related factors, including C/EBPβ, C/EBPα, PPARγ, and FABP4. Moreover, we showed that the inhibition might be the consequence of cell cycle being arrested at the G2/M phase during the mitotic clonal expansion of adipocyte differentiation, most likely by suppressing mRNAs and proteins of CDK1, CDK2, Cyclin A and Cyclin B1. Overall, we conclude that eriocalyxin B is capable of inhibiting adipocyte differentiation at the early stage through downregulating the proteins involved in cell cycle progression.