Anticancer, anti-proliferative activity of Avicennia marina plant extracts

In vitro and in silico analysis for elucidation of antioxidant potential of Djiboutian Avicennia Marina (Forsk.) Vierh. phytochemicals

The present work aims to study the phytochemical composition, the antioxidant capacity of the crude extracts, and the fraction of extract giving the best antioxidant activity of Avicennia marina. The leaves contain high TFC compared to other parts of the plant, whereas fruits have the highest amount of TPC. Fat-soluble pigments are strongly present in the leaves of Avicennia marina i.e. β-carotene, lycopene, chlorophyll a, and chlorophyll b. The crude methanolic flower extracts showed strong DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity with IC50 values of 0.30 and 0.33 mg/mL respectively compared to the leaf and stem methanolic extracts for the DPPH and ABTS models with a value IC50 greater than 1 mg/mL. The crude fruit extract shows good activity with the ABTS model, unlike the DPPH model whose IC50 values are 0.95 and 0.38 mg/mL, respectively. Fractionation improved the antioxidant effect of crude flower extract. The ethyl acetate fraction exhibits the best antioxidant activity for both DPPH and ABTS methods with IC50 values of 0.125 and 0.16 mg/mL. The HR-LCMS/MS led to the identification of 13 compounds: 6 flavonoids and 7 iridoid glycoside compounds in the different parts of the plant. A bioinformatics study was performed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the three major Iridoid glycosides towards the target protein Catalase compound II through free binding energy. Out of these three iridoid glycosides, compound C10 does not represent any toxicity, unlike C8 and C9 which showed an irritancy effect. Furthermore, molecular dynamics shows good stability of the C10-2CAG complex. HighlightsExtraction and fractionation of different part (leaf, stem, flower and fruit) of Avicennia marina.Botanical description and phytochemical analysis of crude extract methanolic. Investigation by HR-LCMS characterization of polyphenols and iridoid glycosides.Evaluation the antioxidant activity of crudes extracts methanolics by two methods in vitro DPPH and ABTS.Antioxidant activity of the fraction of the crude flower extracts presenting the best biological response.Evaluate the contribution of three major compounds 2'-Cinnamoylmussaenosidic acid, 10-O-[E-Cinnamoyl]-geniposidic acid and 10-O-[(E)-p-Coumaroyl]-geniposidic acid in the ethyl acetate fraction on the antioxidant activity through docking and dynamic molecular.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Salt-Tolerant Plants, Halophytes, as Renewable Natural Resources for Cancer Prevention and Treatment: Roles of Phenolics and Flavonoids in Immunomodulation and Suppression of Oxidative Stress towards Cancer Management

Halophytes and xerophytes, plants with adequate tolerance to high salinity with strong ability to survive in drought ecosystem, have been recognized for their nutritional and medicinal values owing to their comparatively higher productions of secondary metabolites, primarily the phenolics, and the flavonoids, as compared to the normal vegetation in other climatic regions. Given the consistent increases in desertification around the world, which are associated with increasing salinity, high temperature, and water scarcity, the survival of halophytes due to their secondary metabolic contents has prioritized these plant species, which have now become increasingly important for environmental protection, land reclamation, and food and animal-feed security, with their primary utility in traditional societies as sources of drugs. On the medicinal herbs front, because the fight against cancer is still ongoing, there is an urgent need for development of more efficient, safe, and novel chemotherapeutic agents, than those currently available. The current review describes these plants and their secondary-metabolite-based chemical products as promising candidates for developing newer cancer therapeutics. It further discusses the prophylactic roles of these plants, and their constituents in prevention and management of cancers, through an exploration of their phytochemical and pharmacological properties, with a view on immunomodulation. The important roles of various phenolics and structurally diverse flavonoids as major constituents of the halophytes in suppressing oxidative stress, immunomodulation, and anti-cancer effects are the subject matter of this review and these aspects are outlined in details.

Natural Products from Mangroves: An Overview of the Anticancer Potential of Avicennia marina

Exploring the potential of natural extracts for pharmaceutical applications in the treatment of different diseases is an emerging field of medical research, owing to the tremendous advantages that they can offer. These include compound sustainability due to the natural origin and virtually unlimited availability. In addition, they contribute to promoting the countries in which they are extracted and manufactured. For this reason, wild active compounds derived from plants are attracting increasing interest due to their beneficial properties. Among them, Avicennia marina has been recently recognized as a potential source of natural substances with therapeutic activities for anti-cancer treatment. A. marina beneficially supplies different chemical compounds, including cyclic triterpenoids, flavonoids, iridoids, naphtaquinones, polyphenols, polysaccharides, and steroids, most of them exhibiting potent antitumor activity. The in vivo and in vitro studies on different models of solid tumors demonstrated its dose-dependent activity. Moreover, the possibility to formulate the A. marina extracted molecules in nanoparticles allowed researchers to ameliorate the therapeutic outcome of treatments exploiting improved selectivity toward cancer cells, thus reducing the side effects due to nonspecific spread.

Computational Identification of Druggable Bioactive Compounds from Catharanthus roseus and Avicennia marina against Colorectal Cancer by Targeting Thymidylate Synthase

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of death worldwide, affecting approximately 1.9 million individuals in 2020. Therapeutics of the disease are not yet available and discovering a novel anticancer drug candidate against the disease is an urgent need. Thymidylate synthase (TS) is an important enzyme and prime precursor for DNA biosynthesis that catalyzes the methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) to deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP) that has emerged as a novel drug target against the disease. Elevated expression of TS in proliferating cells promotes oncogenesis as well as CRC. Therefore, this study aimed to identify potential natural anticancer agents that can inhibit the activity of the TS protein, subsequently blocking the progression of colorectal cancer. Initially, molecular docking was implied on 63 natural compounds identified from Catharanthus roseus and Avicennia marina to evaluate their binding affinity to the desired protein. Subsequently, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion), toxicity, and quantum chemical-based DFT (density-functional theory) approaches were applied to evaluate the efficacy of the selected compounds. Molecular docking analysis initially identified four compounds (PubChem CID: 5281349, CID: 102004710, CID: 11969465, CID: 198912) that have better binding affinity to the target protein. The ADME and toxicity properties indicated good pharmacokinetics (PK) and toxicity ability of the selected compounds. Additionally, the quantum chemical calculation of the selected molecules found low chemical reactivity indicating the bioactivity of the drug candidate. The global descriptor and HOMO-LUMO energy gap values indicated a satisfactory and remarkable profile of the selected molecules. Furthermore, MD simulations of the compounds identified better binding stability of the compounds to the desired protein. To sum up, the phytoconstituents from two plants showed better anticancer activity against TS protein that can be further developed as an anti-CRC drug.

In vitro antifungal and antibacterial potentials of organic extracts of Avicennia marina collected from Rabigh Lagoon, Red Sea Coasts in Saudi Arabia

Abstract Mangrove shrub Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh was used to test the antifungal and antibacterial activities of aerial fractions in vitro. Aspergillus sp, Candida sp and Gram positive bacteria have all been found to be sensitive to mangrove extracts, whereas Gram negative bacteria have been found to be resistant to them. Agar disc diffusion and well-cut diffusion were employed to conduct antifungal and antibacterial activities. The MICs (minimum inhibitory concentrations) for each assay have been established. Several extracts from Mangrove reduced fungus growth (diameters fluctuated between 11 and 41 mm). The Ethyl acetate fraction showed particularly strong inhibition of C. tropicalis, C. albicanis, and A. fumigatus. They had 41, 40, and 25 mm-diameter inhibition zones, respectively. Nesoral, a synthetic antifungal medication, showed no significant changes in its MICs compared to different extracts. Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus subtilis were inhibited by Petroleum Ether extracts at MICs of 0.78 and 0.35 mg/mL, respectively. It is possible that A. marina extracts may be exploited as a viable natural alternative that may be employed in the management of various infections, notably nosocomial bacterial infections, as anti-candidiasis and as anti-aspergillosis agents.