2-O-Methylmagnolol, a Magnolol Derivative, Suppresses Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression via Inhibiting Class I Histone Deacetylase Expression

Evaluation of the environmental factors influencing the quality of Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus based on HPLC and the Maxent model

BACKGROUND

In recent years, global climate change in tandem with increased human activity has resulted in habitat degradation or the migration of rare medicinal plants, potentially impacting the quality of medicinal herbs. Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus is a valuable bulk medicinal material in Northwest China. As the demand for this medicinal herb continues to increase in both domestic and international markets, ensuring the sustainable development of high-quality Astragali Radix is important. In this study, the maximum entropy (Maxent) model was applied, thereby incorporating 136 distribution records, along with 39 environmental factors of A. membranaceus var. mongholicus, to assess the quality zonation and potential distribution of this species in China under climate change.

RESULTS

The results showed that the elevation, annual mean temperature, precipitation of wettest month, solar radiation in June, and mean temperature of warmest quarter were the critical environmental factors influencing the accumulation of astragaloside IV and Astragalus polysaccharide in A. membranaceus var. mongholicus. Among the twelve main environmental variables, annual mean temperature, elevation, precipitation of the wettest month, and solar radiation in November were the four most important factors influencing the distribution of A. membranaceus var. mongholicus. In addition, ecological niche modelling revealed that highly suitable habitats were mainly located in central and western Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, southern Ningxia, central Inner Mongolia, central Shanxi, and northern Hebei. However, the future projections under climate change suggested a contraction of these suitable areas, shifting towards northeastern high-latitude and high-elevation mountains.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings provide essential insights for developing adaptive strategies for A. membranaceus var. mongholicus cultivation in response to climate change and can inform future research on this species. By considering the identified environmental factors and the potential impacts of the predicted climate changes, we can visualize the regional distribution of high-quality Radix Astragali and develop conservation strategies to protect and restore its suitable habitats.

Honokiol and magnolol: A review of structure-activity relationships of their derivatives

Honokiol (HK) and magnolol (MAG) are typical representatives of neolignans possessing a wide range of biological activities and are employed as traditional medicines in Asia. In the past few decades, HK and MAG have been proven to be promising chemical scaffolds for the development of novel neolignan drugs. This review focuses on recent advances in the medicinal chemistry of HK and MAG derivatives, especially their structure-activity relationships. In addition, it also presents a comprehensive summary of the pharmacology, biosynthetic pathways, and metabolic characteristics of HK and MAG. This review can provide pharmaceutical chemists deeper insights into medicinal research on HK and MAG, and a reference for the rational design of HK and MAG derivatives.

Potential roles and molecular mechanisms of phytochemicals against cancer

Increasing evidence has been reported regarding phytochemicals, plant secondary metabolites, having therapeutic functions against numerous human diseases. Recently, phytochemicals (flavonoids, polyphenols, terpenoids, alkaloids, saponins, coumarins and so on) have shown promising anti-cancer efficacy with their distinct advantages of high efficiency and low toxicity. They regulate programmed cell death (apoptosis, pyroptosis, and autophagy), migration and senescence-related signaling pathways of cancer via the modulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1), nuclear factor κ light-chain-enhancer of activated B cell (NF-κB) pathways and glycolytic enzymes. Here, we review the molecular mechanisms by which phytochemicals prevent the development of cancer. Furthermore, phytochemicals combined with chemotherapeutic agents could target the crosstalk among multiple signal cascades to block chemoresistance and attenuate carcinogenic properties, and can be considered as a novel and potential therapeutic strategy. Our review highlights that the mechanisms and promising applications are required to be understood to decisively establish the anti-cancer efficacy of natural phytochemicals.

Designing strategies of small-molecule compounds for modulating non-coding RNAs in cancer therapy

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been defined as a class of RNA molecules transcribed from the genome but not encoding proteins, such as microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, Circular RNAs, and Piwi-interacting RNAs. Accumulating evidence has recently been revealing that ncRNAs become potential druggable targets for regulation of several small-molecule compounds, based on their complex spatial structures and biological functions in cancer therapy. Thus, in this review, we focus on summarizing some new emerging designing strategies, such as high-throughput screening approach, small-molecule microarray approach, structure-based designing approach, phenotypic screening approach, fragment-based designing approach, and pharmacological validation approach. Based on the above-mentioned approaches, a series of representative small-molecule compounds, including Bisphenol-A, Mitoxantrone and Enoxacin have been demonstrated to modulate or selectively target ncRNAs in different types of human cancers. Collectively, these inspiring findings would provide a clue on developing more novel avenues for pharmacological modulations of ncRNAs with small-molecule drugs for future cancer therapeutics.