Natural Environmental Variation Determines Microbial Diversity Patterns in Serofluid Dish, a Traditional Chinese Fermented Vegetable Food.

Serofluid dish is a traditional fermented food that contains rich microbial populations. To gain insight into the environmental variables shaping the microbial diversity patterns, serofluid dish samples were collected from different areas, and 16S rRNA sequencing was performed. Analyses revealed both species and community diversity, including phylotype richness, Shannon index and phylogenetic diversity, were mostly influenced by pH. Additionally, such effects were corroborated by the Mantel test of pairwise UniFrac distances and variable selection of multiple linear regression models. Eventually, correlations between dominant lineages and the pH of serofluid dish other than geographical distance explained a large portion of the changes in microbial composition and diversity. Lactobacillus and related genera, Pediococcus and Acetobacter were largely driven by the variability of pH, and higher richness was observed under moderate pH ranges. Collectively, the results demonstrated that a microbial diversity pattern in serofluid dish is predictable by natural environmental variation and can be better understood through pH conditions.

Anti-Gastric Cancer Activity of the Cell-free Culture Supernatant of Serofluid Dish and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum YT013.

Cancer is second only to heart disease as a cause of death, despite improvements in its early diagnosis and precision medicine. Due to the limitations of commonly used anticancer methods such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, biological therapy, especially probiotics such as lactic acid bacteria, has received widespread attention. Lactobacillus has been proven to inhibit the proliferation of a variety of cancer cells. In this work, the effects of the cell-free culture supernatant of serofluid dish (CCS1) and the cell-free culture supernatant of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum YT013 (CCS2) isolated from serofluid dish on AGS, HCT116, HepG2 and PANC-1 cells were investigated. Based on the CCK-8 assay, CCS1 and CCS2 were shown to suppress the growth of cancer cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The IC50 values of CCS2 of AGS, HCT116, HepG2 and PANC-1 cells were 346.51 ± 35.28, 1207.69 ± 333.18, 650.94 ± 123.78 and 808.96 ± 126.27 µg/ml, respectively. In addition, the results of fluorescence microscopy showed that CCS2 changed cell morphology and treated with CCS2 (200, 400 and 800 µg/ml) for 48 h, AGS cell apoptosis was quantitatively surveyed by flow cytometry, showing 25.0, 34.1, and 42.6% total apoptotic cells. Moreover, western blotting confirmed that BAX, BAD and Caspase-3/8/9 were significantly upregulated and that BCL-2 was significantly downregulated in AGS cells treated with CCS2. These results indicated that CCS2 might lead to apoptosis via the endogenous mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. In summary, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum YT013 may be considered a good candidate for anticancer therapies.

Synthesis and anticancer evaluations of novel 1H-imidazole [4,5-f][1,10] phenanthroline derivative for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

1H-imidazole [4,5-f][1,10] phenanthroline is a promising chemical structure for cancer treatment. Herein, we synthesized a novel 1H-imidazole [4,5-f][1,10] phenanthroline derivative named IPM714 and found it exhibited selectively colorectal cancer (CRC) cells inhibitory activities, with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 1.74 µM and 2 µM in HCT116 cells and SW480 cells, respectively. The present study is intended to explore the cytotoxicity of IPM714 in cancer cells of various types and its anticancer mechanism in vitro. Cellular functional analyses indicated IPM714 can arrest HCT116 cell cycle in S phase and induce apoptosis in HCT116 and SW480 cells. Western blot and molecular docking showed that IPM714 may suppress PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway to inhibit cell proliferation and regulate cell cycle as well as apoptosis. This study proved IPM714 to be a promising drug in CRC therapy.

Synthesis and biological activity of 1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline as a potential antitumor agent with PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling.

1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (IPM713) is a type of tricyclic conjugated rigid planar structure with potential medical applications, but its anticancer activity has not yet been fully studied. In the present research, cells from seven different cancer types were used to study the anticancer effect, and IPM713 was found to inhibit the colorectal cancer cell line HCT116 most significantly, with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 1.7 µM. The mechanisms by which IPM713 exerts anti-colorectal cancer activity were studied. IPM713 blocked the cell cycle in G0/G1 phase and induced apoptosis by suppressing the PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis. In addition, an acute toxicity test showed that the median lethal dose (LD50) was above 5000 mg/kg. The findings of this research suggest that IPM713 can interfere with the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and might be a potential therapeutic candidate for the treatment of colorectal cancer.