Garlic bioactive substances and their therapeutic applications for improving human health: a comprehensive review

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is a widely abundant spice, known for its aroma and pungent flavor. It contains several bioactive compounds and offers a wide range of health benefits to humans, including those pertaining to nutrition, physiology, and medicine. Therefore, garlic is considered as one of the most effective disease-preventive diets. Many in vitro and in vivo studies have reported the sulfur-containing compounds, allicin and ajoene, for their effective anticancer, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, immune-boosting, and cardioprotective properties. As a rich natural source of bioactive compounds, including polysaccharides, saponins, tannins, linalool, geraniol, phellandrene, β-phellandrene, ajoene, alliin, S-allyl-mercapto cysteine, and β-phellandrene, garlic has many therapeutic applications and may play a role in drug development against various human diseases. In the current review, garlic and its major bioactive components along with their biological function and mechanisms of action for their role in disease prevention and therapy are discussed

Revealing the association between vitamin D metabolic pathway gene variants and lung cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Lung cancer is a crucial global issue, with more than one million deaths annually. While smoking is considered the main etiology of the disease, several genetic variants are associated with it. Alterations in vitamin D pathway genes have also been studied in regards to lung cancer, but the findings have been inconclusive. We here present a systematic review and meta-analysis of seven genes in this pathway: CYP2R1, CYP27B1, CYP24A1, CYP3A4, CYP3A5, GC, and VDR. Four databases (PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science (WOS) databases) were searched. From these, 16 eligible case–control studies comprising 6,206 lung cancer cases and 7,272 health controls were obtained. These studies were subjected to comprehensive data extraction and quality scoring, and the pooled odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was calculated to estimate the effect of each variant along with heterogeneity analysis and a risk of bias assessment. Our meta-analysis revealed an association between CYP3A4 (rs2740574) and lung cancer in the allelic, heterozygous, and dominant models. In addition, both VDR (Fok1: rs2228570) and VDR (Cdx-2: rs11568820) displayed a protective role in lung cancer development in the heterozygous and dominant models. Furthermore, VDR (Taq1: rs731236) showed a decreased risk of lung cancer in the allelic, homozygous, and recessive models. Similarly, VDR (BsmI: rs1544410) had a positive effect on lung cancer risk when subjected to allelic and recessive models. Our meta-analysis revealed the lack of association of CYP2R1 (rs10741657), CYP27B1 (rs3782130), CYP27B1 (rs10877012), CYP24A1 (rs6068816), CYP24A1 (rs4809960), CYP3A5 (rs776746), GC (rs7041), GC (rs4588), and VDR (ApaI: rs7975232) with lung cancer. Our work revealed that CYP3A4 (rs2740574) can represent an independent risk factor for lung cancer. This conclusion can aid better personalized medicine for lung cancer management, while further assessment for genetic variants of CYP3A4, CYP27B1, CYP24A1, GC, and VDR is still required to address more robust evidence

Antimicrobial Resistance and Recent Alternatives to Antibiotics for the Control of Bacterial Pathogens with an Emphasis on Foodborne Pathogens

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most important global public health problems. The imprudent use of antibiotics in humans and animals has resulted in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The dissemination of these strains and their resistant determinants could endanger antibiotic efficacy. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify and develop novel strategies to combat antibiotic resistance. This review provides insights into the evolution and the mechanisms of AMR. Additionally, it discusses alternative approaches that might be used to control AMR, including probiotics, prebiotics, antimicrobial peptides, small molecules, organic acids, essential oils, bacteriophage, fecal transplants, and nanoparticles

Recent advances on sustainable adsorbents for the remediation of noxious pollutants from water and wastewater: A critical review

This review article evaluates and compares the efficiency of various sustainable adsorbents for the removal of noxious pollutants from water environments. This study discusses the various types of adsorbents concerning their performance and suitability. Adsorbent types include natural-based, carbon-based, waste-based, biomass-based, biopolymers-based, and nanocomposites-based adsorbents, as well as metallic organic frameworks, aerogels, networking crystalline solids, zeolite nanoparticles, and dendrimers were reviewed. Characterisation, modification, fabrication, adsorption capacities under different conditions, isotherm models, and kinetics of noxious pollutants were also reviewed. Adsorption capacities for different pH values, adsorbent doses, adsorbent concentrations, temperature, and the size of particles have been described. One of the basic needs in water and wastewater adsorbents is their formulation and optimisation, using columnar operations, and more importantly, they can be produced quickly and should be cost-effective. Various studies reported a broad range of values for the thermodynamic parameters for noxious pollutants, suggesting the adsorbent's nature as an essential factor affecting the thermodynamics of noxious pollutant sorption. The regeneration and reusability potential of other adsorbents have also been discussed, along with molecular modelling, simulation, knowledge gaps, and future perspectives of noxious pollutants from the water environments

The emerging roles of sphingosine 1-phosphate and SphK1 in cancer resistance: a promising therapeutic target

Abstract Cancer chemoresistance is a problematic dilemma that significantly restrains numerous cancer management protocols. It can promote cancer recurrence, spreading of cancer, and finally, mortality. Accordingly, enhancing the responsiveness of cancer cells towards chemotherapies could be a vital approach to overcoming cancer chemoresistance. Tumour cells express a high level of sphingosine kinase-1 (SphK1), which acts as a protooncogenic factor and is responsible for the synthesis of sphingosine-1 phosphate (S1P). S1P is released through a Human ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter to interact with other phosphosphingolipids components in the interstitial fluid in the tumor microenvironment (TME), provoking communication, progression, invasion, and tumor metastasis. Also, S1P is associated with several impacts, including anti-apoptotic behavior, metastasis, mesenchymal transition (EMT), angiogenesis, and chemotherapy resistance. Recent reports addressed high levels of S1P in several carcinomas, including ovarian, prostate, colorectal, breast, and HCC. Therefore, targeting the S1P/SphK signaling pathway is an emerging therapeutic approach to efficiently attenuate chemoresistance. In this review, we comprehensively discussed S1P functions, metabolism, transport, and signaling. Also, through a bioinformatic framework, we pointed out the alterations of SphK1 gene expression within different cancers with their impact on patient survival, and we demonstrated the protein–protein network of SphK1, elaborating its sparse roles. Furthermore, we made emphasis on different machineries of cancer resistance and the tight link with S1P. We evaluated all publicly available SphK1 inhibitors and their inhibition activity using molecular docking and how SphK1 inhibitors reduce the production of S1P and might reduce chemoresistance, an approach that might be vital in the course of cancer treatment and prognosis. Graphical Abstrac

Molecular docking as a tool for the discovery of novel insight about the role of acid sphingomyelinase inhibitors in SARS- CoV-2 infectivity

Abstract Recently, COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, caused > 6 million deaths. Symptoms included respiratory strain and complications, leading to severe pneumonia. SARS-CoV-2 attaches to the ACE-2 receptor of the host cell membrane to enter. Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 entry may effectively inhibit infection. Acid sphingomyelinase (ASMase) is a lysosomal protein that catalyzes the conversion of sphingolipid (sphingomyelin) to ceramide. Ceramide molecules aggregate/assemble on the plasma membrane to form “platforms” that facilitate the viral intake into the cell. Impairing the ASMase activity will eventually disrupt viral entry into the cell. In this review, we identified the metabolism of sphingolipids, sphingolipids' role in cell signal transduction cascades, and viral infection mechanisms. Also, we outlined ASMase structure and underlying mechanisms inhibiting viral entry 40 with the aid of inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase (FIASMAs). In silico molecular docking analyses of FIASMAs with inhibitors revealed that dilazep (S = − 12.58 kcal/mol), emetine (S = − 11.65 kcal/mol), pimozide (S = − 11.29 kcal/mol), carvedilol (S = − 11.28 kcal/mol), mebeverine (S = − 11.14 kcal/mol), cepharanthine (S = − 11.06 kcal/mol), hydroxyzin (S = − 10.96 kcal/mol), astemizole (S = − 10.81 kcal/mol), sertindole (S = − 10.55 kcal/mol), and bepridil (S = − 10.47 kcal/mol) have higher inhibition activity than the candidate drug amiodarone (S = − 10.43 kcal/mol), making them better options for inhibition