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    Anticancer and anti-reactive oxygen species activity of bioactive peptides isolated from vigna unguiculata
    (2024-05) Ramsookmohan, Sonaal; Mellem, John Jason; Dwarka, Depika
    Cancer is a major cause of death globally and continues to escalate with current anticancer drugs associated with severe side effects and resistance driving the need for safer alternative therapeutics. Food proteins, from legumes, are a source of bioactive peptides and studies revealed that they are associated with various therapeutic properties. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an underutilized nutritious legume crop with promising potential due to its documented protein profile. Therefore, this study evaluated the in vitro anticancer effect of V. unguiculata peptides derived from alcalase and flavourzyme. Physicochemical properties such as water and oil absorption capacities, emulsifying properties, sub-unit composition, amino acid composition among others, were also assessed. Peptides were also evaluated for their antioxidant activity using superoxide radical scavenging, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil (DPPH) and 2,2’-azino-bis (3 ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) assays as well as for their apoptotic potential using 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and caspase 3/7 assays on cancerous (Caco-2 and MCF 7) and healthy (C2C12) cell lines. From results obtained it was observed that the foam capacity for the peptides derived from alcalase and flavourzyme were 78.34 and 82.39%, respectively, which was noted to be significantly different. The physicochemical properties determined their potential application in food industries. Glutamic acid was the most abundant amino acid in all samples while methionine was noted to be the least concentrated amino acid in the flour and alcalase derived sample while proline was the least concentrated in the flavourzyme sample. Results from this study suggest that cowpea samples have antioxidant capabilities with enzymatic hydrolysis contributing to a higher capacity compared to that of raw flour flour samples. From the cowpea flour, the peptide sample derived from alcalase demonstrated the highest DPPH free radical scavenging activity (70.88-80.47%), followed by flavourzyme (67.27-75.84%), while the raw flour sample showed the lowest activity (24.28-66.17%). The ABTS scavenging capacity of the alcalase peptide was in the range of 35.26-85.92%. The MTT cytotoxicity assay revealed that the cowpea peptides and camptothecin showed different sensitivities on the MCF-7 cell lines. The IC50 values of flavourzyme peptide, alcalase peptide and camptothecin were 0.07, 0.09 and 0.07 µg/mL respectively. Cell viability of the cowpea peptides and camptothecin (control) on the Caco-2 cells varied with the different concentrations. Alcalase and flavourzyme samples had IC50 values of 0.15 and 0.11 µg/mL respectively. The apoptotic potential of the peptides was further shown by the caspase 3/7 activity. From the results in this study, it can be ascertained that the cowpea peptides have potential as an anticancer therapeutic agent. Further research is necessary to determine mechanism of action and to conduct in vivo evaluations of these peptides using animal models
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    Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from Hibiscus tiliaceus L. Leaves and their applications in dye degradation, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities
    (Elsevier BV, 2024-05) Konduri, Vinay Viswanath; Kalagatur, Naveen Kumar; Gunti, Lokanadhan; Mangamuri, Usha Kiranmayi; Kalagadda, Venkateswara Rao; Poda, Sudhakar; Krishna, Suresh Babu Naidu
    The present study reports the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from aqueous extract of Hibis cus tiliaceus L. leaves and their application in dye degradation, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities. Analysis using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy revealed that plant metabolite func tional groups had a role in the reduction and stability of AgNPs, and X-ray crystallography (XRD) demon strated that the AgNPs were in crystal form. The UV vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential investigations revealed that the AgNPs were formed with an average size of 88.10 nm in colloi dal form and were stable (-49 mV). The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and high-reso lution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) confirmed the shape and size of the AgNPs as spherical with a particle size of 30 - 35 nm, respectively. The AgNPs exhibited potential antioxidant activity by total antioxidant, DPPH, and reducing power assays. The biosynthesized AgNPs displayed a wide range of antibac terial activity on Gram-ve and Gram+ve bacteria by the zone of inhibition assay. AgNPs showed good antican cer activity on MCF-7 cells with an IC50 value of 65.83 mg/mL. Furthermore, AgNPs acted as potential catalysts in combination with the reducing agent sodium borohydride (NaBH4) for the degradation of methylene blue (MB), methylene orange (MO), and methylene green (MG) dyes. The degradation efficiency of catalyst AgNPs in the attendance of NaBH4 for 15 min was noted to be 12.8 %, 26.92 %, and 47.56 % for MO, MB, and MG, respectively. The study concluded that green synthesized AgNPs could be highly applicable as an antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer agents in the biomedical field. Furthermore, AgNPs could be helpful in the remediation of dye effluents.
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    Coumarin containing hybrids and their pharmacological activities
    (Phytochemistry & Organic Synthesis Laboratory, 2021-08-09) Kasumbwe, Kabange; Saheed, Sabiu; Makhanya, Talent R.; Venugopala, Katharigatta Narayanaswamy; Mohanlall, Viresh
    Coumarin moiety is of great interest to both chemists and biologists as it is present in a wide variety of naturally occurring bioactive compounds. Studies have lent scientific credence to the biological activities of several coumarin derivatives. The broad spectrum of biological activities linked with coumarin includes antibacterial, antimycobacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and antiviral properties. The electron releasing and withdrawing substituent of coumarin affects the pharmacological properties of its resulting derivatives. Thus, identifying key structural features within the coumarin family is vital to the design and development of new analogues with enhanced pharmacological activity due to the variability in the structural complexity of coumarin. This article presents an up-to-date synopsis on the synthesis of coumarin derivatives and their pharmacological properties.
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    A brief review of secondary plant metabolites as anticancer agents
    (COJ Reviews & Research, 2020-05-18) Mohanlall, Viresh; Naicker, Leeann
    Plants have provided a source of medicine from the beginning of human history and are the core of modern medicine. Moreover, plant-based drug discovery has led to the development of various anticancer drugs (such as vincristine, vinblastine, etoposide, paclitaxel, camptothecin, topotecan and irinotecan). The use of botanical, photochemical, biological and molecular techniques have facilitated the discovery of novel secondary metabolites from native and indigenous plants that can inhibit the human topoisomerase II enzyme (target for anticancer drugs) and kill cancer cells. Therefore, the aim of this review was to further investigate the anticancer activity of secondary metabolites from native and indigenous plants and determine the classes of compounds that contributed towards its activity.