Food frontiers最新文献

{"title":"Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals the Chemical and Molecular Basis for Aroma Divergence in Isatis Fruits","authors":"Rong Chen,&nbsp;Yan Qing,&nbsp;Xiaoshan Geng,&nbsp;Qiaoyun Cai,&nbsp;Lili Wang,&nbsp;Fanglin Liu,&nbsp;Huijun Cheng,&nbsp;Yude Peng,&nbsp;Chunfeng Tang,&nbsp;Huaxi Huang,&nbsp;Qin Liu","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70258","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The fruits of <i>Isatis</i> species hold significant but underexplored potential in flavor and phytochemical applications. This study comprehensively investigated the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their transcriptional regulation underlying aroma divergence in the fruits of three <i>Isatis</i> species. Using headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME–GC–MS), a total of 1042 VOCs were identified, with terpenoids, esters, and ketones being the most abundant classes. Principal component and differential analyses revealed distinct, species-specific VOC profiles. Quantitative analysis showed that <i>Isatis oblongata</i> had the highest total VOC content, characterized by esters and alcohols, whereas <i>Isatis tinctoria</i> and <i>Isatis indigotica</i> exhibited balanced aldehyde-terpenoid and ketone-enhanced profiles, respectively. The application of relative odor activity value (rOAV) modeling identified 44 key aroma-active compounds, defining the sensory profiles: <i>I. oblongata</i> as mushroom dominant (driven by the high rOAV of 1-octen-3-one), <i>I. tinctoria</i> as fatty-green-earthy (driven by C9 aldehydes), and <i>I. indigotica</i> as sweet-green with a spicy undertone (associated with benzene, (isothiocyanatomethyl)-). Integrated transcriptomic analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) uncovered the molecular basis for this divergence. The fatty-green character of <i>I. tinctoria</i> was linked to a <i>NAC</i> transcription factor (Iin12486) that co-expressed with specific <i>lipoxygenase</i> (<i>LOX</i>) genes (Iin24854, Iin09829). Conversely, the mushroom aroma of <i>I. oblongata</i> was associated with a different <i>NAC</i> TF (Iin05720) co-expressed with a <i>hydroperoxide lyase</i> (<i>HPL</i>) gene (Iin21448). This multiomics study deciphers the coordinated transcriptional regulation underlying aroma divergence in <i>Isatis</i>, providing a scientific basis for chemotaxonomy, quality control, and the targeted utilization of aroma resources in these species.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70258","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research on Adaptive Irrigation Decision-Making Method for the Entire Growth Cycle of Water Spinach Based on Reinforcement Learning","authors":"Ruipeng Tang,&nbsp;Loy Chee Luen,&nbsp;Wei Sun,&nbsp;Narendra Kumar Aridas,&nbsp;Mohamad Sofian Abu Talip","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To address the issues of irrigation decisions in water spinach production being highly dependent on experience and struggling to cope with rainfall uncertainty and crop growth stage differences, this study proposes an environmentally enhanced proximal policy optimization (EN-PPO) precision irrigation control method. On the basis of the traditional proximal policy optimization (PPO) reinforcement learning framework, the environmental information enhancement mechanism is introduced to decompose the state space into policy and environmental states. The EN-PPO is not simply the direct application of PPO but rather incorporates two key improvements addressing the strong uncertainties and safety constraints of agricultural irrigation. First, it introduces a dynamic shearing strategy in the near-end policy update, allowing the policy update magnitude to adaptively adjust with training phases and environmental fluctuations, which mitigates the training oscillations caused by rainfall randomness and sample scarcity; second, it designs a negative incentive mechanism oriented towards production safety and resource efficiency, penalizing behaviors that violate soil moisture safety ranges, redundant irrigation, and failure to meet rotation and switching constraints, which guides the agent to avoid high-risk decisions during the exploration phase and maintain stable and water-saving irrigation strategy outputs during the utilization phase. The experimental results show that the EN-PPO algorithm exhibits superior comprehensive performance in terms of policy convergence stability, water-saving effect, and rainfall utilization efficiency, which achieves more reasonable irrigation timing and water volume regulation without affecting normal crop growth and yield. It provides a feasible approach for the engineering application of reinforcement learning in agricultural precision irrigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Curcumin Nanoformulations for Dermatological Applications: From Nutraceuticals to Nanocarriers","authors":"Stephany Celeste Gutiérrez-Ruiz,&nbsp;Alejandra Romero-Montero,&nbsp;Hector Hernández-Parra,&nbsp;Sheila I. Peña-Corona,&nbsp;Héctor Adrián García-Gasca,&nbsp;Katya Carbone,&nbsp;Fabio Gervasi,&nbsp;Shivaprasad Shetty Mangalpady,&nbsp;Rajesh Kaverikana,&nbsp;Mariia Shanaida,&nbsp;Volodymyr Shanaida,&nbsp;Daniela Calina,&nbsp;Javad Sharifi-Rad,&nbsp;Gerardo Leyva-Gómez","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70265","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fft2.70265","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Curcumin is a natural polyphenol derived from <i>Curcuma longa</i> with well-documented anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and wound-healing properties. However, its clinical application in dermatology remains limited due to its low water solubility, low stability, and limited skin penetration. Recent advances in nanotechnology have enabled the development of curcumin delivery systems designed to improve dermal bioavailability, stability, and controlled release. Our novelty lies in integrating bibliometric analyses with a translational emphasis on food-grade nanocarriers. This review highlights the therapeutic relevance of curcumin in major skin conditions, such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, acne, wound healing, burns, and skin cancer, with an emphasis on lipid- and polymer-based nanoformulations, such as liposomes, niosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, and hydrogel-based platforms. Furthermore, the bibliometric analysis highlights a growing scientific interest in curcumin nanotherapies, although clinical evidence remains limited. In general, curcumin nanoformulations represent promising strategies for topical dermatological applications, but further clinical validation and regulatory development are required to support their application in therapeutic products.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70265","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research on Adaptive Irrigation Decision-Making Method for the Entire Growth Cycle of Water Spinach Based on Reinforcement Learning","authors":"Ruipeng Tang,&nbsp;Loy Chee Luen,&nbsp;Wei Sun,&nbsp;Narendra Kumar Aridas,&nbsp;Mohamad Sofian Abu Talip","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To address the issues of irrigation decisions in water spinach production being highly dependent on experience and struggling to cope with rainfall uncertainty and crop growth stage differences, this study proposes an environmentally enhanced proximal policy optimization (EN-PPO) precision irrigation control method. On the basis of the traditional proximal policy optimization (PPO) reinforcement learning framework, the environmental information enhancement mechanism is introduced to decompose the state space into policy and environmental states. The EN-PPO is not simply the direct application of PPO but rather incorporates two key improvements addressing the strong uncertainties and safety constraints of agricultural irrigation. First, it introduces a dynamic shearing strategy in the near-end policy update, allowing the policy update magnitude to adaptively adjust with training phases and environmental fluctuations, which mitigates the training oscillations caused by rainfall randomness and sample scarcity; second, it designs a negative incentive mechanism oriented towards production safety and resource efficiency, penalizing behaviors that violate soil moisture safety ranges, redundant irrigation, and failure to meet rotation and switching constraints, which guides the agent to avoid high-risk decisions during the exploration phase and maintain stable and water-saving irrigation strategy outputs during the utilization phase. The experimental results show that the EN-PPO algorithm exhibits superior comprehensive performance in terms of policy convergence stability, water-saving effect, and rainfall utilization efficiency, which achieves more reasonable irrigation timing and water volume regulation without affecting normal crop growth and yield. It provides a feasible approach for the engineering application of reinforcement learning in agricultural precision irrigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Saikosaponin A Inhibits Migration/Invasion and Triggers Cell-Cycle Arrest and Autophagy-Induced Cell Death in HCT116 Cells and In Vivo","authors":"Xiu-Xiu Zhang,&nbsp;Wang-Wei Zhang,&nbsp;Run-Hui Ma,&nbsp;Zhi-Jing Ni,&nbsp;Kiran Thakur,&nbsp;Mohammad Rizwan Khan,&nbsp;Jian-Guo Zhang,&nbsp;Zhao-Jun Wei","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70271","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fft2.70271","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of cancer-related mortality, and current therapies are often limited by severe adverse effects and high recurrence rates. Natural products with multi-target activity and low toxicity offer promising therapeutic alternatives. Saikosaponin A (SSA), a triterpenoid saponin isolated from <i>Radix Bupleuri</i>, has shown antitumor potential, but its role and mechanisms in CRC remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the antitumor effects of SSA in CRC and to elucidate its underlying molecular mechanisms. SSA significantly inhibited HCT116 cell viability while exhibiting low toxicity toward normal HEK293 cells. SSA induced pronounced morphological changes and cell cycle arrest. Mechanistic investigations revealed that SSA inhibited the mTOR signaling pathway, thereby promoting autophagy, as evidenced by increased LC3B-II/I ratios and enhanced autophagolysosome formation. In addition, SSA suppressed cell migration and metastatic potential through inhibition of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Notably, SSA-induced autophagy was closely associated with its anti-metastatic effects. In vivo, SSA treatment (5 mg/kg) markedly suppressed tumor growth in HCT116 xenograft mice without causing detectable systemic toxicity. SSA exhibits potent antitumor activity against CRC by inducing autophagy and inhibiting metastasis-related signaling pathways, supporting its potential as a low-toxicity natural therapeutic candidate for CRC.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70271","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Curcumin Nanoformulations for Dermatological Applications: From Nutraceuticals to Nanocarriers","authors":"Stephany Celeste Gutiérrez-Ruiz,&nbsp;Alejandra Romero-Montero,&nbsp;Hector Hernández-Parra,&nbsp;Sheila I. Peña-Corona,&nbsp;Héctor Adrián García-Gasca,&nbsp;Katya Carbone,&nbsp;Fabio Gervasi,&nbsp;Shivaprasad Shetty Mangalpady,&nbsp;Rajesh Kaverikana,&nbsp;Mariia Shanaida,&nbsp;Volodymyr Shanaida,&nbsp;Daniela Calina,&nbsp;Javad Sharifi-Rad,&nbsp;Gerardo Leyva-Gómez","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70265","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Curcumin is a natural polyphenol derived from <i>Curcuma longa</i> with well-documented anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and wound-healing properties. However, its clinical application in dermatology remains limited due to its low water solubility, low stability, and limited skin penetration. Recent advances in nanotechnology have enabled the development of curcumin delivery systems designed to improve dermal bioavailability, stability, and controlled release. Our novelty lies in integrating bibliometric analyses with a translational emphasis on food-grade nanocarriers. This review highlights the therapeutic relevance of curcumin in major skin conditions, such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, acne, wound healing, burns, and skin cancer, with an emphasis on lipid- and polymer-based nanoformulations, such as liposomes, niosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, and hydrogel-based platforms. Furthermore, the bibliometric analysis highlights a growing scientific interest in curcumin nanotherapies, although clinical evidence remains limited. In general, curcumin nanoformulations represent promising strategies for topical dermatological applications, but further clinical validation and regulatory development are required to support their application in therapeutic products.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70265","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Curcumin Nanoformulations for Dermatological Applications: From Nutraceuticals to Nanocarriers","authors":"Stephany Celeste Gutiérrez-Ruiz,&nbsp;Alejandra Romero-Montero,&nbsp;Hector Hernández-Parra,&nbsp;Sheila I. Peña-Corona,&nbsp;Héctor Adrián García-Gasca,&nbsp;Katya Carbone,&nbsp;Fabio Gervasi,&nbsp;Shivaprasad Shetty Mangalpady,&nbsp;Rajesh Kaverikana,&nbsp;Mariia Shanaida,&nbsp;Volodymyr Shanaida,&nbsp;Daniela Calina,&nbsp;Javad Sharifi-Rad,&nbsp;Gerardo Leyva-Gómez","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70265","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Curcumin is a natural polyphenol derived from <i>Curcuma longa</i> with well-documented anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and wound-healing properties. However, its clinical application in dermatology remains limited due to its low water solubility, low stability, and limited skin penetration. Recent advances in nanotechnology have enabled the development of curcumin delivery systems designed to improve dermal bioavailability, stability, and controlled release. Our novelty lies in integrating bibliometric analyses with a translational emphasis on food-grade nanocarriers. This review highlights the therapeutic relevance of curcumin in major skin conditions, such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, acne, wound healing, burns, and skin cancer, with an emphasis on lipid- and polymer-based nanoformulations, such as liposomes, niosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, and hydrogel-based platforms. Furthermore, the bibliometric analysis highlights a growing scientific interest in curcumin nanotherapies, although clinical evidence remains limited. In general, curcumin nanoformulations represent promising strategies for topical dermatological applications, but further clinical validation and regulatory development are required to support their application in therapeutic products.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70265","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research on Adaptive Irrigation Decision-Making Method for the Entire Growth Cycle of Water Spinach Based on Reinforcement Learning","authors":"Ruipeng Tang,&nbsp;Loy Chee Luen,&nbsp;Wei Sun,&nbsp;Narendra Kumar Aridas,&nbsp;Mohamad Sofian Abu Talip","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70261","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fft2.70261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To address the issues of irrigation decisions in water spinach production being highly dependent on experience and struggling to cope with rainfall uncertainty and crop growth stage differences, this study proposes an environmentally enhanced proximal policy optimization (EN-PPO) precision irrigation control method. On the basis of the traditional proximal policy optimization (PPO) reinforcement learning framework, the environmental information enhancement mechanism is introduced to decompose the state space into policy and environmental states. The EN-PPO is not simply the direct application of PPO but rather incorporates two key improvements addressing the strong uncertainties and safety constraints of agricultural irrigation. First, it introduces a dynamic shearing strategy in the near-end policy update, allowing the policy update magnitude to adaptively adjust with training phases and environmental fluctuations, which mitigates the training oscillations caused by rainfall randomness and sample scarcity; second, it designs a negative incentive mechanism oriented towards production safety and resource efficiency, penalizing behaviors that violate soil moisture safety ranges, redundant irrigation, and failure to meet rotation and switching constraints, which guides the agent to avoid high-risk decisions during the exploration phase and maintain stable and water-saving irrigation strategy outputs during the utilization phase. The experimental results show that the EN-PPO algorithm exhibits superior comprehensive performance in terms of policy convergence stability, water-saving effect, and rainfall utilization efficiency, which achieves more reasonable irrigation timing and water volume regulation without affecting normal crop growth and yield. It provides a feasible approach for the engineering application of reinforcement learning in agricultural precision irrigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Saikosaponin A Inhibits Migration/Invasion and Triggers Cell-Cycle Arrest and Autophagy-Induced Cell Death in HCT116 Cells and In Vivo","authors":"Xiu-Xiu Zhang,&nbsp;Wang-Wei Zhang,&nbsp;Run-Hui Ma,&nbsp;Zhi-Jing Ni,&nbsp;Kiran Thakur,&nbsp;Mohammad Rizwan Khan,&nbsp;Jian-Guo Zhang,&nbsp;Zhao-Jun Wei","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70271","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of cancer-related mortality, and current therapies are often limited by severe adverse effects and high recurrence rates. Natural products with multi-target activity and low toxicity offer promising therapeutic alternatives. Saikosaponin A (SSA), a triterpenoid saponin isolated from <i>Radix Bupleuri</i>, has shown antitumor potential, but its role and mechanisms in CRC remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the antitumor effects of SSA in CRC and to elucidate its underlying molecular mechanisms. SSA significantly inhibited HCT116 cell viability while exhibiting low toxicity toward normal HEK293 cells. SSA induced pronounced morphological changes and cell cycle arrest. Mechanistic investigations revealed that SSA inhibited the mTOR signaling pathway, thereby promoting autophagy, as evidenced by increased LC3B-II/I ratios and enhanced autophagolysosome formation. In addition, SSA suppressed cell migration and metastatic potential through inhibition of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Notably, SSA-induced autophagy was closely associated with its anti-metastatic effects. In vivo, SSA treatment (5 mg/kg) markedly suppressed tumor growth in HCT116 xenograft mice without causing detectable systemic toxicity. SSA exhibits potent antitumor activity against CRC by inducing autophagy and inhibiting metastasis-related signaling pathways, supporting its potential as a low-toxicity natural therapeutic candidate for CRC.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70271","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Saikosaponin A Inhibits Migration/Invasion and Triggers Cell-Cycle Arrest and Autophagy-Induced Cell Death in HCT116 Cells and In Vivo","authors":"Xiu-Xiu Zhang,&nbsp;Wang-Wei Zhang,&nbsp;Run-Hui Ma,&nbsp;Zhi-Jing Ni,&nbsp;Kiran Thakur,&nbsp;Mohammad Rizwan Khan,&nbsp;Jian-Guo Zhang,&nbsp;Zhao-Jun Wei","doi":"10.1002/fft2.70271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.70271","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of cancer-related mortality, and current therapies are often limited by severe adverse effects and high recurrence rates. Natural products with multi-target activity and low toxicity offer promising therapeutic alternatives. Saikosaponin A (SSA), a triterpenoid saponin isolated from <i>Radix Bupleuri</i>, has shown antitumor potential, but its role and mechanisms in CRC remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the antitumor effects of SSA in CRC and to elucidate its underlying molecular mechanisms. SSA significantly inhibited HCT116 cell viability while exhibiting low toxicity toward normal HEK293 cells. SSA induced pronounced morphological changes and cell cycle arrest. Mechanistic investigations revealed that SSA inhibited the mTOR signaling pathway, thereby promoting autophagy, as evidenced by increased LC3B-II/I ratios and enhanced autophagolysosome formation. In addition, SSA suppressed cell migration and metastatic potential through inhibition of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Notably, SSA-induced autophagy was closely associated with its anti-metastatic effects. In vivo, SSA treatment (5 mg/kg) markedly suppressed tumor growth in HCT116 xenograft mice without causing detectable systemic toxicity. SSA exhibits potent antitumor activity against CRC by inducing autophagy and inhibiting metastasis-related signaling pathways, supporting its potential as a low-toxicity natural therapeutic candidate for CRC.</p>","PeriodicalId":73042,"journal":{"name":"Food frontiers","volume":"7 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://iadns.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fft2.70271","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}