Plant-microbe interactions implicated in the production of camptothecin - An anticancer biometabolite from Phyllosticta elongata MH458897 a novel endophytic strain isolated from medicinal plant of Western Ghats of India.

Endophytic wild fungal strain Phyllosticta elongata MH458897 isolated from medicinal plant Cipadessa baccifera from the Western Ghats region of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve Forest. This endophytic fungus has potential of effective anticancer drug Camptothecin (CPT). Endophytic fungi act as key symbionts in-between plants and ecosystem in the biosphere. This recently identified microbial population inside the plants produces many defence metabolites against plant pathogens. Among these defense metabolites, CPT gained much attention because of its effective anticancer activity. The maximum yield of CPT produced by optimizing the various factors like DEKM07 medium, pH 5.6, incubation time using Response Surface Methodology based on Central Composite Design. Extracted CPT is characterized using High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Electrospray ionization-Mass spectrometry. The highest yield of CPT was 0.747 mg/L was produced at optimized factors of dextrose - 50 g L-1, peptone - 5.708 g L-1, magnesium sulphate - 0.593 g L-1, and incubation time - 14 days. In-vitro MTT assay revealed the CPT derivatives were cytotoxic to A-549 cancer cell line (IC50 58.28 µg/ml) as nearly compared to the (IC50 51.08 µg/ml) standard CPT. CPT producing strain P. elongata from C. baccifera has the potential of CPT biosynthesis, and could be an effective anticancer bio metabolite. This compound has been described in the literature to be an effective anticancer metabolite. Our findings support the novel lifesaving anticancer drug from endophytic fungus in forest ecosystem concludes effective utilization of key symbionts will safeguard the humans and forest ecosystem.

Phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of coconut cotyledon.

Coconut tree (Cocos nucifera L.), a perennial, monocot tree, belonging to the family Arecaceae, is distributed through the tropics. Bioactivities of coconut water, husk fiber, oil, flowers, spadix and mesocarp of coconut fruit are widely reported. However, there is no study on cotyledon of coconut. In this study, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, phenols, flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids and antioxidants were quantified in hot and cold percolated extracts of coconut cotyledon. Further, the antioxidant activity was studied using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH); ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP); ferric thiocyanate (FTC); thiobarbituric acid (TBA); nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging and ß-carotene bleaching assays. Among the secondary metabolites, only cardiac glycosides were detected. Methanolic extraction by cold percolation extracted high content of secondary metabolites and exhibited significant antioxidant activity in DPPH, FRAP, NO and ß-carotene bleaching assays, with EC50 of 0.12, 6.43, 16.21 and 8.09 mg/ml respectively. The chloroform extracts recorded high lipid content and scavenged the radicals in FTC (EC50 13.31 mg/ml) and TBA (EC50 9.21 mg/ml) assays. The study recommends extraction of compounds using methanol through cold percolation. The cotyledon of coconut is found to be a potent nutritive source equivalent to the endosperm.

A proteome-wide systems toxicological approach deciphers the interaction network of chemotherapeutic drugs in the cardiovascular milieu.

Onco-cardiology is critical for the management of cancer therapeutics since many of the anti-cancer agents are associated with cardiotoxicity. Therefore, the major aim of the current study is to employ a novel in silico method combined with experimental validation to explore off-targets and prioritize the enriched molecular pathways related to the specific cardiovascular events other than their intended targets by deriving relationship between drug-target-pathways and cardiovascular complications in order to help onco-cardiologists for the management of strategies to minimize cardiotoxicity. A systems biological understanding of the multi-target effects of a drug requires prior knowledge of proteome-wide binding profiles. In order to achieve the above, we have utilized PharmMapper, a web-based tool that uses a reverse pharmacophore mapping approach (spatial arrangement of features essential for a molecule to interact with a specific target receptor), along with KEGG for exploring the pathway relationship. In the validation part of the study, predicted protein targets and signalling pathways were strengthened with existing datasets of DrugBank and antibody arrays specific to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signalling in the case of 5-fluorouracil as direct experimental evidence. The current systems toxicological method illustrates the potential of the above big-data in supporting the knowledge of onco-cardiological indications which may lead to the generation of a decision making catalogue in future therapeutic prescription.