Natural phenolics: a source of anticancer agents

Biological activities and ecological aspects of Limonium pruinosum (L.) collected from Wadi Hof Eastern Desert, Egypt, as a promising attempt for potential medical applications

Very few researchers have focused on the biological efficacy of Limonium plants. In this concern, no investigations were commenced to delve into the in vitro and ex vivo biological actions of Limonium pruinosum in Egypt. Therefore, this work aims to assess for the first time the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antitumor activities of Limonium pruinosum extract in addition to studying its ability to suppress the transcription of cell cycle–stimulating genes. L. pruinosum ethyl acetate extract exhibits considerable antibacterial and antibiofilm activity versus E. coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. Results revealed that L. pruinosum exerts antioxidant effectiveness concerning DPPH, nitric oxide (NO), and hydroxyl radical (OH) scavenging ability with an IC50 (35.88 ± 2.2, 51.31 ± 1.06, and 65.87 ± 1.19 μg/mL) respectively. The results proved the effectiveness of L. pruinosum in closing wounds in gastric epithelial cells (GES-1) by (79.9343 ± 1.98%) compared with control (68.3637 ± 2.32%) in 48 h. Additionally, L. pruinosum had anticancer activity contrary to breast cancer MCF-7 and liver cancer HepG-2 cell lines with IC50 values of 96.73 ± 2.18 and 81.81 ± 0.99 μg/mL, respectively, while it had no cytotoxic activity against (Wi-38) normal cells. Also, L. pruinosum extract provoked considerable early- and late-apoptotic cell populations and was effective in inducing cell death of MCF-7. Our findings evoked that L. pruinosum has promising antibacterial, antioxidant, and wound healing activities and a good breast tumor suppressor arresting the cell cycle-stimulating genes, which may be an auspicious approach for the treatment of breast cancer.

Assessment of probiotic efficacy and anticancer activities of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ESSG1 (MZ683194.1) and Lactiplantibacillus pentosus ESSG2 (MZ683195.1) isolated from dairy products

Resistance to antibiotics is on the rise, and its indiscriminate usage has resulted in human and animal management constraints. In the research for an innovative treatment to diminish antimicrobial resistance, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) throw light on diminishing this problem in public health. As a result, this paper looked at the efficacy of LAB isolates and their active metabolites to combat pathogens, reduce antibiotic use in clinical settings, and explore the anticancer potential of 8 strains of LAB isolated from dairy products. Antifungal and antibacterial potential of LAB isolates against selected crop pathogenic fungi and food pathogenic bacteria had been estimated. Results revealed that all isolates exert antioxidant efficacy relating to DPPH, NO scavenging ability, reducing power, superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical, and anti-lipid peroxidation potential. Additionally, 12B isolate exert the highest anticancer upshot with IC₅₀ values of 43.98 ± 0.4; 36.7 ± 0.6, 43.1 ± 0.8, and 35.1 ± 0.3 μg/ml, versus Caco-2, MCF-7, HepG-2, and PC3 cell lines respectively, whereas 13B isolate significantly had the highest selectivity index between peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and the tested human cancer cell lines compared to 5-fluorouracil. 13B was the most apoptosis-dependent death inducer for all human cancer cell lines besides exerting the lowest percentage of apoptosis against PBMCs suggesting its safety against PBMCs. The most promising strains 12B and 13B were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ESSG1 (MZ683194.1) and Lactiplantibacillus pentosus ESSG2 (MZ683195.1). LAB and their extracts are superb substitutive, safe, and efficient antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antitumor curative agents.