Ellagic Acid and Cancer Hallmarks: Insights from Experimental Evidence.

Cancer is a complex and multifaceted disease with a high global incidence and mortality rate. Although cancer therapy has evolved significantly over the years, numerous challenges persist on the path to effectively combating this multifaceted disease. Natural compounds derived from plants, fungi, or marine organisms have garnered considerable attention as potential therapeutic agents in the field of cancer research. Ellagic acid (EA), a natural polyphenolic compound found in various fruits and nuts, has emerged as a potential cancer prevention and treatment agent. This review summarizes the experimental evidence supporting the role of EA in targeting key hallmarks of cancer, including proliferation, angiogenesis, apoptosis evasion, immune evasion, inflammation, genomic instability, and more. We discuss the molecular mechanisms by which EA modulates signaling pathways and molecular targets involved in these cancer hallmarks, based on in vitro and in vivo studies. The multifaceted actions of EA make it a promising candidate for cancer prevention and therapy. Understanding its impact on cancer biology can pave the way for developing novel strategies to combat this complex disease.

Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Colorectal Cancer: An Overview.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The pathogenesis of CRC is a complex multistep process. Among other factors, inflammation and oxidative stress (OS) have been reported to be involved in the initiation and development of CRC. Although OS plays a vital part in the life of all organisms, its long-term effects on the human body may be involved in the development of different chronic diseases, including cancer diseases. Chronic OS can lead to the oxidation of biomolecules (nucleic acids, lipids and proteins) or the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways, resulting in the activation of several transcription factors or the dysregulation of gene and protein expression followed by tumor initiation or cancer cell survival. In addition, it is well known that chronic intestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are associated with an increased risk of cancer, and a link between OS and IBD initiation and progression has been reported. This review focuses on the role of oxidative stress as a causative agent of inflammation in colorectal cancer.

Chalcones and Gastrointestinal Cancers: Experimental Evidence.

Colorectal (CRC) and gastric cancers (GC) are the most common digestive tract cancers with a high incidence rate worldwide. The current treatment including surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy has several limitations such as drug toxicity, cancer recurrence or drug resistance and thus it is a great challenge to discover an effective and safe therapy for CRC and GC. In the last decade, numerous phytochemicals and their synthetic analogs have attracted attention due to their anticancer effect and low organ toxicity. Chalcones, plant-derived polyphenols, received marked attention due to their biological activities as well as for relatively easy structural manipulation and synthesis of new chalcone derivatives. In this study, we discuss the mechanisms by which chalcones in both in vitro and in vivo conditions suppress cancer cell proliferation or cancer formation.

Therapeutic and prophylactic effect of flavonoids in post-COVID-19 therapy.

The high incidence of post-covid symptoms in humans confirms the need for effective treatment. Due to long-term complications across several disciplines, special treatment programs emerge for affected patients, emphasizing multidisciplinary care. For these reasons, we decided to look at current knowledge about possible long-term complications of COVID-19 disease and then present the effect of flavonoids, which could help alleviate or eliminate complications in humans after overcoming the COVID-19 infection. Based on articles published from 2003 to 2021, we summarize the flavonoids-based molecular mechanisms associated with the post-COVID-19 syndrome and simultaneously provide a complex view regarding their prophylactic and therapeutic potential. Review clearly sorts out the outcome of post-COVID-19 syndrome according particular body systems. The conclusion is that flavonoids play an important role in prevention of many diseases. We suggest that flavonoids as critical nutritional supplements, are suitable for the alleviation and shortening of the period associated with the post-COVID-19 syndrome. The most promising flavonoid with noteworthy therapeutic and prophylactic effect appears to be quercetin.

Pleiotropic effect of anionic phospholipids absence on mitochondrial morphology and cell wall integrity in strictly aerobic Kluyveromyces lactis yeasts.

Cardiolipin and phosphatidylglycerol are anionic phospholipids localized to the inner mitochondrial membrane. In this study, it is demonstrated by fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy that atp2.1pgs1Δ mutant mitochondria lacking anionic phospholipids contain fragmented and swollen mitochondria with a completely disorganized inner membrane. In the second part of this study, it was shown that the temperature sensitivity of the atp2.1pgs1Δ mutant was not suppressed by the osmotic stabilizer glucitol but by glucosamine, a precursor of chitin synthesis. The atp2.1pgs1Δ mutant was hypersensitive to Calcofluor White and caffeine, resistant to Zymolyase, but its sensitivity to caspofungin was the same as the strains with the standard PGS1 gene. The distribution of chitin in the mutant cell wall was impaired. The glucan level in the cell wall of the atp2.1pgs1Δ mutant was reduced by 4-8 %, but the level of chitin was almost double that in the wild-type strain. The cell wall of the atp2.1pgs1Δ mutant was about 20 % thinner than the wild type, but its morphology was not significantly altered.

Absence of anionic phospholipids in Kluyveromyces lactis cells is fatal without F1-catalysed ATP hydrolysis.

We have shown in previous research that the loss of phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin caused by disruption of the PGS1 gene is lethal for the petite-negative yeast Kluyveromyces lactis . This present study demonstrates the role and mechanism of atp2.1 in the suppression of pgs1 lethality in K. lactis cells. Phenotypic characterization has shown that a strain lacking the phosphatidylglycerolphosphate synthase (atp2.1pgs1Δ) possessed a markedly impaired respiratory chain, very low endogenous respiration, and uncoupled mitochondria. As a result the mutant strain was unable to generate a sufficient mitochondrial membrane potential via respiration. The atp2.1 suppressor mutation enabled an increase in the affinity of F(1)-ATPase for ATP in the hydrolytic reaction, resulting in the maintenance of sufficient membrane potential for the biogenesis of mitochondria and survival of cells lacking anionic phospholipid biosynthesis.