Gambogic acid suppresses colon cancer cell activity in vitro

Nano-Drug Delivery Systems Based on Natural Products

Natural products have proven to have significant curative effects and are increasingly considered as potential candidates for clinical prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Compared with synthetic drugs, natural products not only have diverse structures but also exhibit a range of biological activities against different disease states and molecular targets, making them attractive for development in the field of medicine. Despite advancements in the use of natural products for clinical purposes, there remain obstacles that hinder their full potential. These challenges include issues such as limited solubility and stability when administered orally, as well as short durations of effectiveness. To address these concerns, nano-drug delivery systems have emerged as a promising solution to overcome the barriers faced in the clinical application of natural products. These systems offer notable advantages, such as a large specific surface area, enhanced targeting capabilities, and the ability to achieve sustained and controlled release. Extensive in vitro and in vivo studies have provided further evidence supporting the efficacy and safety of nanoparticle-based systems in delivering natural products in preclinical disease models. This review describes the limitations of natural product applications and the current status of natural products combined with nanotechnology. The latest advances in nano-drug delivery systems for delivery of natural products are considered from three aspects: connecting targeting warheads, self-assembly, and co-delivery. Finally, the challenges faced in the clinical translation of nano-drugs are discussed.

Management of Colorectal Cancer Using Nanocarriers-based Drug Delivery for Herbal Bioactives: Current and Emerging Approaches

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a complex and multifactorial disorder in middle-aged people. Several modern medicines are available for treating and preventing it. However, their therapeutic uses are limited due to drawbacks, such as gastric perforation, diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, abdominal cramps, hair loss, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and adverse reactions. Hence, there is a continuous quest for safe and effective medicines to manage human health problems, like CRC. In this context, herbal medicines are considered an alternative disease control system. It has become popular in countries, like American, European, and Asian, due to its safety and effectiveness, which has been practiced for 1000 years. During the last few decades, herbal medicines have been widely explored through multidisciplinary fields for getting active compounds against human diseases. Several herbal bioactives, like curcumin, glycyrrhizin, paclitaxel, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, catechin, berberine, ursolic acid, betulinic acid, chrysin, resveratrol, quercetin, etc., have been found to be effective against CRC. However, their pharmacological applications are limited due to low bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy apart from their several health benefits. An effective delivery system is required to increase their bioavailability and efficacy. Therefore, targeted novel drug delivery approaches are promising for improving these substances' solubility, bioavailability, and therapeutic effects. Novel carrier systems, such as liposomes, nanoparticles, micelles, microspheres, dendrimers, microbeads, and hydrogels, are promising for delivering poorly soluble drugs to the target site, i.e., the colon. Thus, the present review is focused on the pathophysiology, molecular pathways, and diagnostic and treatment approaches for CRC. Moreover, an emphasis has been laid especially on herbal bioactive-based novel delivery systems and their clinical updates.

MiR-1275 Targeting SPARC Promotes Gambogic Acid-Induced Inhibition of Gastric Cancer

Gambogic acid (GA) has been observed to effectively impede the progression of numerous types of cancers. In this study, we investigated the effects of miR-1275 and Secreted Protein Acidic and Cysteine Rich (SPARC) on GA in gastric cancer (GC). miR-1275 and SPARC expression were determined in GC cell lines and tissues using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The correlation between miR-1275 and SPARC expression was ascertained using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Cell proliferation was assessed using the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. The Transwell assay was conducted to examine cell migration. A dual-luciferase reporter assay was used to verify the regulatory relationship between miR-1275 and SPARC. The levels of SPARC, Bcl-2, and Bax proteins were estimated using western blotting. To verify the effects of GA on the growth of GC cells in vivo, a tumorigenesis experiment was performed in nude mice. GA suppressed GC cell viability and migration, facilitated apoptosis, and inhibited tumor growth in vivo and in vitro. Low levels of miR-1275 been observed in GC cell lines and tissues. GA-treated GC cells manifested high miR-1275 levels. In functional experiments, miR-1275 enhanced the influence of GA on cell apoptosis, migration, and proliferation. Furthermore, GA treatment suppressed SPARC upregulation in GC cell lines and tissues. Pearson's correlation coefficient revealed that miR-1275 expression negatively correlated with SPARC expression. Mechanistically, miR-1275 promoted growth inhibition in GA-treated GC cells by targeting SPARC. Our study indicates that miR-1275 enhances the suppressive effect of GA on GC progression by inhibiting SPARC expression. Through this study, we contribute to the knowledge of a new mechanism by which GA suppresses GC progression.

A Prognostic Ferroptosis-Related lncRNA Model Associated With Immune Infiltration in Colon Cancer

Colon cancer (CC) is a common malignant tumor worldwide, and ferroptosis plays a vital role in the pathology and progression of CC. Effective prognostic tools are required to guide clinical decision-making in CC. In our study, gene expression and clinical data of CC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. We identified the differentially expressed ferroptosis-related lncRNAs using the differential expression and gene co-expression analysis. Then, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify the effective ferroptosis-related lncRNAs for constructing the prognostic model for CC. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted to explore the functional enrichment analysis. CIBERSORT and single-sample GSEA were performed to investigate the association between our model and the immune microenvironment. Finally, three ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (XXbac-B476C20.9, TP73-AS1, and SNHG15) were identified to construct the prognostic model. The results of the validation showed that our model was effective in predicting the prognosis of CC patients, which also was an independent prognostic factor for CC. The GSEA analysis showed that several ferroptosis-related pathways were significantly enriched in the low-risk group. Immune infiltration analysis suggested that the level of immune cell infiltration was significantly higher in the high-risk group than that in the low-risk group. In summary, we established a prognostic model based on the ferroptosis-related lncRNAs, which could provide clinical guidance for future laboratory and clinical research on CC.

Research Progress in the Field of Gambogic Acid and Its Derivatives as Antineoplastic Drugs

Gambogic acid (GA) is a natural product with a wide range of pharmacological properties. It plays an important role in inhibiting tumor growth. A large number of GA derivatives have been designed and prepared to improve its shortcomings, such as poor water solubility, low bioavailability, poor stability, and adverse drug effects. So far, GA has been utilized to develop a variety of active derivatives with improved water solubility and bioavailability through structural modification. This article summarized the progress in pharmaceutical chemistry of GA derivatives to provide a reference and basis for further study on structural modifications of GA and expansion of its clinical applications.

Novel Xanthone Derivatives Impair Growth and Invasiveness of Colon Cancer Cells In Vitro

Natural xanthones are a large group of compounds from which promising anticancer properties could be further developed by chemical modifications. This study aimed to investigate the influence of four novel xanthone derivatives based on a naturally occurring xanthone skeleton on the invasiveness of colon cancer cells in vitro. First, the concentrations required to inhibit growth of three colorectal cancer cell lines to 50% (GI₅₀) of all the studied compounds, as well as the natural xanthones used as a reference (gambogic acid and α-mangostin), have been established (MTS reduction test). Next, the assays determining several aspects of the GI₂₅ xanthones influence on colorectal cancer cells, including cytotoxicity, migration and invasion potential, interaction with extracellular matrix and endothelial cells, as well as expression of selected invasiveness related genes have been performed. Our results demonstrate that these novel xanthone derivatives impair colorectal cancer proliferation, motility, adhesion to extracellular matrix and to endothelial cells, and also induce apoptosis and cell death. Moreover, their activity is comparable to cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, used as reference compounds. Conducted research indicates our compounds for further research and development as novel drugs in colorectal cancer treatment.

Gambogic acid: A shining natural compound to nanomedicine for cancer therapeutics

The United States Food and Drug Administration has permitted number of therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. Most of them are expensive and have some degree of systemic toxicity which makes overbearing in clinical settings. Although advanced research continuously applied in cancer therapeutics, but drug resistance, metastasis, and recurrence remain unanswerable. These accounts to an urgent clinical need to discover natural compounds with precisely safe and highly efficient for the cancer prevention and cancer therapy. Gambogic acid (GA) is the principle bioactive and caged xanthone component, a brownish gamboge resin secreted from the of Garcinia hanburyi tree. This molecule showed a spectrum of biological and clinical benefits against various cancers. In this review, we document distinct biological characteristics of GA as a novel anti-cancer agent. This review also delineates specific molecular mechanism(s) of GA that are involved in anti-cancer, anti-metastasis, anti-angiogenesis, and chemo-/radiation sensitizer activities. Furthermore, recent evidence, development, and implementation of various nanoformulations of gambogic acid (nanomedicine) have been described.