Aims: This review aimed to comprehensively examine kratom’s therapeutic potential for treatment of mental health-related issues as well as any related benefits and risks. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Medline. Review methods: Three authors carried out electronic search of articles published between 1950 to September 2022 through major databases for a duration of three months (from July to September 2022). Each author independently screened the literature for inclusion and exclusion criteria, the findings were then compared, discrepancies between authors were resolved, and the final selection of articles were reviewed. Results: A total of 46 articles were included in this review. A total of three in vitro and animal studies and five cross-sectional online surveys reported the therapeutic potential of kratom in opioid replacement therapy. In addition, a total of two animal studies and three cross-sectional online surveys highlighted the role of kratom as a potential antidepressant and anxiolytic. Contrastingly, two animal studies, 11 studies in human subjects, and 16 case reports documented the risk of kratom dependence, cravings, tolerance, and kratom-related substance use disorder as the major safety concern of implementing kratom use as a therapeutic agent. Conclusion and impact: In the absence of human clinical trial, coupled with various considerable adverse events of kratom (not limited to psychological side effects), evidence to support kratom as potential therapeutic use remains inconclusive.
Arisaema heterophyllum Blume is a perennial medicinal herb widely distributed in China, Korea and Japan. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome sequence of A. heterophyllum was assembled and characterized based on high-throughput sequencing data. The whole chloroplast genome is 170,610 bp in length and contains 95,485 bp large single-copy (LSC) and 22,605 bp small single-copy (SSC) regions separated by a pair of 26,260 bp inverted repeat (IR) regions. It contained a total of 129 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes, with an overall GC content of 34.5%. A phylogenetic tree reconstructed by 30 chloroplast genomes reveals that A. heterophyllum is mostly related to the same genus A. ringens, A. franchetianum and A. erubescens. The complete chloroplast genome of A. heterophyllum was the firstly reported and deposited at GenBank under accession number MZ424448.
Paederia foetida L. belonging to Rubiaceae family is a perennial medicinal herb widely distributed in India and China. The first complete chloroplast genome sequence of P. foetida was assembled and characterized in this study. The total chloroplast genome was 153,591 bp in length with 37.74% GC content, composed of a large single-copy (LSC) region of 83,677 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 16,888 bp and a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,513 bp. The whole chloroplast genome encoded 133 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis of 30 chloroplast genomes strongly suggested that P. foetida was closely related to P. scandens.
Abstract Background Peucedanum praeruptorum Dunn, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, contains coumarin and volatile oil components that have clinical application value. However, early bolting often occurs in the medicinal materials of Apiaceae plants. The rhizomes of the medicinal parts are gradually lignified after bolting, resulting in a sharp decrease in the content of coumarins. At present, the link between coumarin biosynthesis and early bolting in P. praeruptorum has not been elucidated. Results Combining the genome sequencing and the previous transcriptome sequencing results, we reanalyzed the differential transcripts of P. praeruptorum before and after bolting. A total of 62,088 new transcripts were identified, of which 31,500 were unknown transcripts. Functional classification and annotation showed that many genes were involved in the regulation of transcription, defense response, and carbohydrate metabolic processes. The main domains are the pentatricopeptide repeat, protein kinase, RNA recognition motif, leucine-rich repeat, and ankyrin repeat domains, indicating their pivotal roles in protein modification and signal transduction. Gene structure analysis showed that skipped exon (SE) was the most dominant alternative splicing, followed by the alternative 3’ splice site (A3SS) and the alternative 5’ splice site (A5SS). Functional enrichment of differentially expressed genes showed that these differentially expressed genes mainly include transmembrane transporters, channel proteins, DNA-binding proteins, polysaccharide-binding proteins, etc . In addition, genes involved in peroxisome, hexose phosphate pathway, phosphatidylinositol signaling system, and inositol phosphate metabolism pathway were greatly enriched. A protein-protein interaction network analysis discoverd 1,457 pairs of proteins that interact with each other. The expression levels of six UbiA genes, three UGT genes, and four OMT genes were higher during the bolting stage. This observation suggests their potential involvement in the catalytic processes of prenylation, glycosylation, and methylation of coumarins, respectively. A total of 100 peroxidase ( PRX) genes were identified being involved in lignin polymerization, but only nine PRX genes were highly expressed at the bolting stage. It is worth noting that 73 autophagy-related genes ( ATGs ) were first identified from the KEGG pathway-enriched genes. Some ATGs , such as BHQH00009837 , BHQH00013830 , and novel8944 , had higher expression levels after bolting. Conclusions Comparative transcriptome analysis and large-scale genome screening provide guidance and new opinions for the identification of bolting-related genes in P. praeruptorum .
Autophagy aims to capture and degrade intracellular proteins and organelles, which is induced by starvation and recycles intracellular components to sustain metabolism and survival. Autophagy maintains homeostasis by controlling protein and organelle quality and quantity. Many diseases can be attributed to dysfunctional autophagy. The role of autophagy in cancer is determined by many factors, and autophagy can be neutral, tumor-suppressive, or tumor-promoting in different contexts in cancers. Here we summarize the molecular mechanisms involved in autophagy in cancers and review the potential treatment targets for cancers.
Key words:
Autophagy; Cancer; Molecular mechanism
'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(23.036 .093 25.536)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(45.87 1.273 16.18)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(69.945 .996 12.078)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(20.66 -19.689 31.932)'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)