Plant-derived molecules have been highly valued by biomedical researchers and pharmaceutical companies for developing drugs, as they are thought to be optimized during evolution. Therefore, we have collected and compiled a central resource Naturally Occurring Plant-based Anti-cancer Compound-Activity-Target database (NPACT, http://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/npact/) that gathers the information related to experimentally validated plant-derived natural compounds exhibiting anti-cancerous activity (in vitro and in vivo), to complement the other databases. It currently contains 1574 compound entries, and each record provides information on their structure, manually curated published data on in vitro and in vivo experiments along with reference for users referral, inhibitory values (IC50/ED50/EC50/GI50), properties (physical, elemental and topological), cancer types, cell lines, protein targets, commercial suppliers and drug likeness of compounds. NPACT can easily be browsed or queried using various options, and an online similarity tool has also been made available. Further, to facilitate retrieval of existing data, each record is hyperlinked to similar databases like SuperNatural, Herbal Ingredients’ Targets, Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, PubChem and NCI-60 GI50 data.
Acetogenins (ACG) are naturally occurring compounds that are chemically one of the least investigated families. In the review, we have provided a comprehensive listing of 133 of these compounds for which anti-tumor activity has been documented within the literature. We have compiled and studied their chemical structure, in-vitro as well as in-vivo anticancer biological activity. We observed that the relative potency of acetogenins can be categorized as adjacent bis-THF ACGs > nonadjacent bis-THF ACGs > mono-THF ACGs > linear-THF ACGs. Among adjacent bis-THF ACGs, asiminocin (A100), asiminecin (A101), asiminacin (A102) and asimin (A103) are the most active compounds with in-vitro activity (ED50) in the range of 10(-9) to 10(-12) μg/mL. For the nonadjacent bis-THF ACGs, gigantecin (A53) exhibited better cytotoxicity as compared to others in the series with an ED50 in the range of 10(-6) to 10(-8) μg/mL. Similarly, muricatetrocin-C (A36), a mono-THF and coriadienin (A116) a linear ACG has been reported to show promising cytotoxicity with an ED50 of 10(-5) μg/mL. Moreover, in-vivo studies indicate that compounds like bullatacin (A83), desacetyluvaricin (A76), bullatalicin (A58) and annonacin (A8) have demonstrated significant activity in mouse models and thereby exhibiting potential for lead development as a potential anticancer agent/drug. Also, globally oncologists are looking towards compounds from natural origin that inhibits the growth of resistant tumor cells. We find that several acetogenins like bullatacin (A83), motrilin (A95), asimicin (A77), trilobacin (A96), annonacin (A8), gigantetronenin (A108) and squamocin (A73) are efficacious in suppressing the proliferation of the MDR MCF-7/Adr cells. The present analysis suggests that acetogenins can act as yet another important source for obtaining promising lead compounds in order to contribute to cancer prevention, however, in future extensive in-vivo studies in animal models will be needed to provide insight for lead development.
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