| 1. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham, et al.
(författare)
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Chemistry and the Potential Antiviral, Anticancer, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Cardiotonic Steroids Derived from Toads
- 2022
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Ingår i: Molecules. - : MDPI AG. - 1431-5157 .- 1420-3049. ; 27:19
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cardiotonic steroids (CTS) were first documented by ancient Egyptians more than 3000 years ago. Cardiotonic steroids are a group of steroid hormones that circulate in the blood of amphibians and toads and can also be extracted from natural products such as plants, herbs, and marines. It is well known that cardiotonic steroids reveal effects against congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation; therefore, the term cardiotonic has been coined. Cardiotonic steroids are divided into two distinct groups: cardenolides (plant-derived) and bufadienolides (mainly of animal origin). Cardenolides have an unsaturated five-membered lactone ring attached to the steroid nucleus at position 17; bufadienolides have a doubly unsaturated six-membered lactone ring. Cancer is a leading cause of mortality in humans all over the world. In 2040, the global cancer load is expected to be 28.4 million cases, which would be a 47% increase from 2020. Moreover, viruses and inflammations also have a very nebative impact on human health and lead to mortality. In the current review, we focus on the chemistry, antiviral and anti-cancer activities of cardiotonic steroids from the naturally derived (toads) venom to combat these chronic devastating health problems. The databases of different research engines (Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, and Sci-Finder) were screened using different combinations of the following terms: cardiotonic steroids, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, toad venom, bufadienolides, and poison chemical composition. Various cardiotonic steroids were isolated from diverse toad species and exhibited superior anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral activities in in vivo and in vitro models such as marinobufagenin, gammabufotalin, resibufogenin, and bufalin. These steroids are especially difficult to identify. However, several compounds and their bioactivities were identified by using different molecular and biotechnological techniques. Biotechnology is a new tool to fully or partially generate upscaled quantities of natural products, which are otherwise only available at trace amounts in organisms.
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| 2. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring natural products-based cancer therapeutics derived from egyptian flora
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Ethnopharmacology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-8741 .- 1872-7573. ; 269
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ethnopharmacological relevance: Egyptian plants are a rich source of natural molecules, representing considerable biodiversity due to climate variations between the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western regions of the country. Sinai is considered a precious nature reserves preserving flora, fauna, marine organisms, and historical habitats with ancient origins. Here, traditional medicinal approaches have been used for hundreds of years. Healthy lifestyles, low levels of stress and microbial infections, and a dependence on flora and herbal medicine might in combination explain why the burden of cancer is lower in some regions than in others.Aim of the study: The primary aim of this review is to document the plants and natural products that are used as foods and medicines in Egypt, in general, and in Sinai, in particular, with a focus on those with demonstrated anticancer activities. The documented traditional uses of these plants are described, together with their chemical and pharmacological activities and the reported outcomes of clinical trials against cancer.Materials and methods: A literature search was performed to identify texts describing the medicinal plants that are cultivated and grown in Egypt, including information found in textbooks, published articles, the plant list website (http://www.theplantlist.org/), the medicinal plant names services website (http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal/), and web databases (PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar).Results and discussion: We collected data for most of the plants cultivated or grown in Egypt that have been previously investigated for anticancer effects and reported their identified bioactive elements. Several plant species, belonging to different families and associated with 67 bioactive compounds, were investigated as potential anticancer agents (in vitro studies). The most potent cytotoxic activities were identified for the families Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gramineae, and Liliaceae. The anticancer activities of some species, such as Punica granatum L., Nerium oleander L., Olea europea L., Matricaria chamomilla L., Cassia acutifolia L., Nigella sativa L., Capsicum frutescens L., Withania somnifera L., and Zingiber officinale Roscoe, have been examined in clinical trials. Among the various Egyptian plant habitats, we found that most of these plants are grown in the North Sinai, New-Delta, and Giza Governorates.Conclusion: In this review, we highlight the role played by Egyptian flora in current medicinal therapies and the possibility that these plants may be examined in further studies for the development of anticancer drugs. These bioactive plant extracts form the basis for the isolation of phytochemicals with demonstrated anticancer activities. Some active components derived from these plants have been applied to preclinical and clinical settings, including resveratrol, quercetin, isoquercetin, and rutin.
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| 3. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al.
(författare)
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Plant extracts and compounds for combating schistosomiasis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Phytochemistry Reviews. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1568-7767 .- 1572-980X. ; 22:6, s. 1691-1806
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Schistosomiasis is a vector-borne water-based disease caused by Schistosoma blood flukes. It mostly affects people in low-income regions, 90% of reported cases being in developing countries. Schistosoma has a complex lifecycle, alternately infecting mammalian hosts and snails. The snails hosting the parasite are the most viable targets. Selective preparations for reducing the parasite pool in snails and infected water are required as current molluscicides are also nontoxic to other organisms, including fish, and thus affect food supplies in infected areas. Plants (e.g. Annona crassiflora Mart., A. muricata L., and A. montana Macfad.) are attractive potential sources as alternative molluscicides and novel entity to treat the disease owned to their diverse biologically potent compounds including; saponins, alkaloids, terpenoids, and tannins. Additionally, they can be locally cultivated, providing income for farmers and reducing treatment costs. Here, we review plants, plant extracts and isolated compounds that have shown activities against the host snails or Schistosoma in various parts of its life cycle. Plants have a lot of potential and will continue to contribute feasible, effective medicines and/or pesticides; more research is warranted to fully explore their future applications.
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| 4. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al.
(författare)
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Plant extracts and compounds for combating schistosomiasis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Phytochemistry Reviews. - : Springer. - 1568-7767 .- 1572-980X. ; 22:6, s. 1691-1806
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Schistosomiasis is a vector-borne water-based disease caused by Schistosoma blood flukes. It mostly affects people in low-income regions, 90% of reported cases being in developing countries. Schistosoma has a complex lifecycle, alternately infecting mammalian hosts and snails. The snails hosting the parasite are the most viable targets. Selective preparations for reducing the parasite pool in snails and infected water are required as current molluscicides are also nontoxic to other organisms, including fish, and thus affect food supplies in infected areas. Plants (e.g. Annona crassiflora Mart., A. muricata L., and A. montana Macfad.) are attractive potential sources as alternative molluscicides and novel entity to treat the disease owned to their diverse biologically potent compounds including; saponins, alkaloids, terpenoids, and tannins. Additionally, they can be locally cultivated, providing income for farmers and reducing treatment costs. Here, we review plants, plant extracts and isolated compounds that have shown activities against the host snails or Schistosoma in various parts of its life cycle. Plants have a lot of potential and will continue to contribute feasible, effective medicines and/or pesticides; more research is warranted to fully explore their future applications.
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| 5. |
- Hegazy, Mohamed-Elamir F., et al.
(författare)
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Terpenoid bio-transformations and applications via cell/organ cultures : a systematic review
- 2020
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Ingår i: Critical reviews in biotechnology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0738-8551 .- 1549-7801. ; 40:1, s. 64-82
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Structurally diverse natural products are valued for their targeted biological activity. The challenge of working with such metabolites is their low natural abundance and complex structure, often with multiple stereocenters, precludes large-scale or unsophisticated chemical synthesis. Since select plants contain the enzymatic machinery necessary to produce specialized compounds, tissue cultures can be used to achieve key transformations for large-scale chemical and/or pharmaceutical applications. In this context, plant tissue-culture bio-transformations have demonstrated great promise in the preparation of pharmaceutical products. This review describes the capacity of cultured plant cells to transform terpenoid natural products and the specific application of such transformations over the past three decades (1988-2019).
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| 6. |
- Ibrahim, Mahmoud A. A., et al.
(författare)
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Blue Biotechnology : Computational Screening of Sarcophyton Cembranoid Diterpenes for SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibition
- 2021
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Ingår i: Marine Drugs. - : MDPI. - 1660-3397 .- 1660-3397. ; 19:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The coronavirus pandemic has affected more than 150 million people, while over 3.25 million people have died from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As there are no established therapies for COVID-19 treatment, drugs that inhibit viral replication are a promising target; specifically, the main protease (M-pro) that process CoV-encoded polyproteins serves as an Achilles heel for assembly of replication-transcription machinery as well as down-stream viral replication. In the search for potential antiviral drugs that target M-pro, a series of cembranoid diterpenes from the biologically active soft-coral genus Sarcophyton have been examined as SARS-CoV-2 M-pro inhibitors. Over 360 metabolites from the genus were screened using molecular docking calculations. Promising diterpenes were further characterized by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on molecular mechanics-generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA) binding energy calculations. According to in silico calculations, five cembranoid diterpenes manifested adequate binding affinities as M-pro inhibitors with Delta G(binding) < -33.0 kcal/mol. Binding energy and structural analyses of the most potent Sarcophyton inhibitor, bislatumlide A (340), was compared to darunavir, an HIV protease inhibitor that has been recently subjected to clinical-trial as an anti-COVID-19 drug. In silico analysis indicates that 340 has a higher binding affinity against M-pro than darunavir with Delta G(binding) values of -43.8 and -34.8 kcal/mol, respectively throughout 100 ns MD simulations. Drug-likeness calculations revealed robust bioavailability and protein-protein interactions were identified for 340; biochemical signaling genes included ACE, MAPK14 and ESR1 as identified based on a STRING database. Pathway enrichment analysis combined with reactome mining revealed that 340 has the capability to re-modulate the p38 MAPK pathway hijacked by SARS-CoV-2 and antagonize injurious effects. These findings justify further in vivo and in vitro testing of 340 as an antiviral agent against SARS-CoV-2.
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| 7. |
- Ibrahim, Mahmoud A. A., et al.
(författare)
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In silico drug discovery of major metabolites from spices as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors
- 2020
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Ingår i: Computers in Biology and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0010-4825 .- 1879-0534. ; 126
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious illness caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), originally identified in Wuhan, China (December 2019) and has since expanded into a pandemic. Here, we investigate metabolites present in several common spices as possible inhibitors of COVID-19. Specifically, 32 compounds isolated from 14 cooking seasonings were examined as inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 main protease (MPrn), which is required for viral multiplication. Using a drug discovery approach to identify possible antiviral leads, in silico molecular docking studies were performed. Docking calculations revealed a high potency of salvianolic acid A and curcumin as MPr inhibitors with binding energies of 9.7 and 9.2 kcal/mol, respectively. Binding mode analysis demonstrated the ability of salvianolic acid A and curcumin to form nine and six hydrogen bonds, respectively with amino acids proximal to MPr 's active site. Stabilities and binding affinities of the two identified natural spices were calculated over 40 ns molecular dynamics simulations and compared to an antiviral protease inhibitor (lopinavir). Molecular mechanics-generalized Born surface area energy calculations revealed greater salvianolic acid A affinity for the enzyme over curcumin and lopinavir with energies of 44.8, 34.2 and 34.8 kcal/mol, respectively. Using a STRING database, protein-protein interactions were identified for salvianolic acid A included the biochemical signaling genes ACE, MAPK14 and ESR1; and for curcumin, EGFR and TNF. This study establishes salvianolic acid A as an in silico natural product inhibitor against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and provides a promising inhibitor lead for in vitro enzyme testing.
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| 8. |
- Ibrahim, Mahmoud A. A., et al.
(författare)
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In Silico Mining of Terpenes from Red-Sea Invertebrates for SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease (M-pro) Inhibitors
- 2021
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Ingår i: Molecules. - : MDPI AG. - 1431-5157 .- 1420-3049. ; 26:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent for the COVID-19 pandemic, which generated more than 1.82 million deaths in 2020 alone, in addition to 83.8 million infections. Currently, there is no antiviral medication to treat COVID-19. In the search for drug leads, marine-derived metabolites are reported here as prospective SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors. Two hundred and twenty-seven terpene natural products isolated from the biodiverse Red-Sea ecosystem were screened for inhibitor activity against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M-pro) using molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with molecular mechanics/generalized Born surface area binding energy calculations. On the basis of in silico analyses, six terpenes demonstrated high potency as M-pro inhibitors with Delta G(binding) <= -40.0 kcal/mol. The stability and binding affinity of the most potent metabolite, erylosides B, were compared to the human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitor, lopinavir. Erylosides B showed greater binding affinity towards SARS-CoV-2 M-pro than lopinavir over 100 ns with Delta G(binding) values of -51.9 vs. -33.6 kcal/mol, respectively. Protein-protein interactions indicate that erylosides B biochemical signaling shares gene components that mediate severe acute respiratory syndrome diseases, including the cytokine- and immune-signaling components BCL2L1, IL2, and PRKC. Pathway enrichment analysis and Boolean network modeling were performed towards a deep dissection and mining of the erylosides B target-function interactions. The current study identifies erylosides B as a promising anti-COVID-19 drug lead that warrants further in vitro and in vivo testing.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Khalifa, Shaden A. M., et al.
(författare)
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Comprehensive Overview on Multiple Strategies Fighting COVID-19
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 17:16
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lately, myriad of novel viruses have emerged causing epidemics such as SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2, leading to high mortality rates worldwide. Thus, these viruses represented a challenging threat to mankind, especially considering the miniscule data available at our disposal regarding these novel viruses. The entire world established coordinative relations in research projects regarding drug and vaccine development on the external range, whereas on the internal range, all countries declared it an emergency case through imposing different restrictions related to their border control, large gatherings, school attendance, and most social activities. Pandemic combating plans prioritized all sectors including normal people, medical staff politicians, and scientists collectively shouldered the burden. Through planning and learning the previous lessons from SARS and MERS, healthcare systems could succeed in combating the viral spread and implications of these new pandemics. Different management strategies including social distance, social awareness and isolation represented successful ways to slow down the spread of the pandemic. Furthermore, pre-preparedness of some countries for emergencies is crucial to minimize the consequences of the crisis.
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