Gamma Irradiation Causes Variation and Stability of Artemisinin Content in <em>Artemisia annua</em> Plants

Artemisinin is an anti-malarial sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Artemisia annua L., a traditional Chinese herb of the family Asteraceae. The plant contains relatively low artemisinin content, ranging from 0.01 to 0.8% of the plant dry weight, depending on the geographical origin, seasonal, and somatic variations. Ionizing radiation has been recognized as a powerful technique for plant improvement, especially in crop plants. This technique creates genetic variability in plants, which can be screened for desirable characteristics. Very little is known about the effect of gamma irradiation on the potential increase of artemisinin production in A. annua. In this study, 130 shoot tips excised from the population of in vitro A. annua plantlets (with an average leaf artemisinin content of 0.18 ± 0.09%) were exposed to 5 Gy 60Co gamma irradiation and subsequently transferred to a suitable medium for in vitro development of plantlets. The resulting 90 stable survived after four passages appeared to have a wide variation of artemisinin content, ranging from 0.02 to 0.68% of dry weight. All the viable plantlets were then transferred from the in vitro cultures to ex vitro conditions both in a greenhouse and an open field. A significant correlation was observed between artemisinin content among individual pairs of the vitro plantlets and ex vitro mature plants, with the correlation coefficient (R2) values of 0.915 for the greenhouse plants and 0.797 for the open field plants. Among these, the highest artemisinin-containing plant appeared to accumulate 0.84% artemisinin of dry weight in the open field, which is almost five times higher than the original plants. These results suggest that gamma irradiation with 5-Gy dose can produce viable variants of A. annua that can maintain the biosynthetic capability of artemisinin throughout the in vitro-ex vitro transfer and development of the first generation of mature plants

A Non-functional γ-Aminobutyric Acid Shunt Pathway in Cyanobacterium <i>Synechocystis</i> sp. PCC 6803 Enhances δ-Aminolevulinic Acid Accumulation under Modified Nutrient Conditions

To redirect carbon flux from the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt to the δ-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) biosynthetic pathway, we disrupted the GABA shunt route of the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 by inactivating Gdc, the gene-encoding glutamate decarboxylase. The generated ΔGdc strain exhibited lower intracellular GABA and higher ALA levels than the wild-type (WT) one. The ΔGdc strain’s ALA levels were ~2.8 times higher than those of the WT one when grown with levulinic acid (LA), a competitive inhibitor of porphobilinogen synthase. Abiotic stress conditions including salinity induced by 10 mM NaCl and cold at 4 °C increased the ALA levels in ΔGdc up to ~2.5 and 5 ng g−1 cell DW, respectively. The highest ALA production in the ΔGdc cyanobacteria grown in BG11 medium was triggered by glucose induction, followed by glutamate supplementation with 60 mM of LA, thereby resulting in ~360 ng g−1 cell DW of ALA, that is >300-fold higher ALA accumulation than that observed in ΔGdc cyanobacteria grown in normal medium. Increased levels of the gdhA (involved in the interconversion of α-ketoglutarate to glutamate) and the hemA (a major regulatory target of the ALA biosynthetic pathway) transcripts occurred in ΔGdc cyanobacteria grown under modified growth conditions. Our study provides critical insight into the facilitation of ALA production in cyanobacteria

Mechanistic synergy of hair growth promotion by the Avicennia marina extract and its active constituent (avicequinone C) in dermal papilla cells isolated from androgenic alopecia patients.

Androgenic alopecia (AGA) is associated with an increased production of 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by steroid-5α-reductase (5α-R). Crude extracts from Avicennia marina (AM) and its active constituent, avicequinone C (AC), can inhibit 5α-R. We have, herein, explored the potential use of the AM extract and of AC as anti-AGA agents. To this end, we employed human dermal papilla cells (DPCs) isolated from AGA patients' hair that express 5α-R type-1 as well as the androgenic receptor (AR) at high levels. Our in vitro experiments revealed that the AM extract (10 μg/mL) and the AC (10 μM) exhibit multiple actions that interfere with the mechanism that causes AGA. Beside acting as 5α-R inhibitors, both preparations were able to inhibit either the DHT-AR complex formation or its translocation from the cytoplasm into the nucleus (the site of DHT's action). The treatments also increased the gene expression of growth factors in DPCs; these factors play important roles in the angiogenesis associated with hair growth. Moreover, the AM extract suppressed the apoptotic pathway, thereby postponing the initiation of the catagen phase. Taken together, our findings suggest that the AM extract and the AC could serve as natural sources for hair growth promotion and AGA treatment

Structure and Antioxidant Activity Relationships of Isoflavonoids from Dalbergia parviflora

The antioxidant activities of 24 isoflavonoids that were previously isolated as pure compounds from Dalbergia parviflora were evaluated using three different in vitro antioxidant-based assay systems: xanthine/xanthine oxidase (X/XO), ORAC, and DPPH. The isolates consisted of three subgroups, namely isoflavones, isoflavanones, and isoflavans, each of which appeared to have diversified substituents, and were thus ideal for the study of their structure-activity relationships (SARs). The SAR analysis was performed using the results obtained from both the inter-subgroup isoflavonoids with the same substitution pattern and the intra-subgroup compounds with different substitution patterns. The inter-subgroup comparison showed that the isoflavones exhibited the highest antioxidant activities based on all three assays. The intra-subgroup analysis showed that the additional presence of an OH group in Ring B at either R3′ or R5′ from the basic common structure of the R7-OH of Ring A and the R4′-OH (or -OMe) of Ring B greatly increased the antioxidant activities of all of the isoflavonoid subgroups and that other positions of OH and OMe substitutions exerted different effects on the activities depending on the subgroup and assay type. Therefore, based on the structural diversity of the isoflavonoids in D. parviflora, the present study provides the first clarification of the detailed antioxidant SARs of isoflavonoids