{"title":"Advances, opportunities, and challenges in methods for interrogating the structure activity relationships of natural products","authors":"","doi":"10.1039/d4np00009a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d4np00009a","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Time span in literature: 1985-early 2024</div></div><div><div>Natural products play a key role in drug discovery, both as a direct source of drugs and as a starting point for the development of synthetic compounds. Most natural products are not suitable to be used as drugs without further modification due to insufficient activity or poor pharmacokinetic properties. Choosing what modifications to make requires an understanding of the compound's structure–activity relationships. Use of structure–activity relationships is commonplace and essential in medicinal chemistry campaigns applied to human-designed synthetic compounds. Structure–activity relationships have also been used to improve the properties of natural products, but several challenges still limit these efforts. Here, we review methods for studying the structure–activity relationships of natural products and their limitations. Specifically, we will discuss how synthesis, including total synthesis, late-stage derivatization, chemoenzymatic synthetic pathways, and engineering and genome mining of biosynthetic pathways can be used to produce natural product analogs and discuss the challenges of each of these approaches. Finally, we will discuss computational methods including machine learning methods for analyzing the relationship between biosynthetic genes and product activity, computer aided drug design techniques, and interpretable artificial intelligence approaches towards elucidating structure–activity relationships from models trained to predict bioactivity from chemical structure. Our focus will be on these latter topics as their applications for natural products have not been extensively reviewed. We suggest that these methods are all complementary to each other, and that only collaborative efforts using a combination of these techniques will result in a full understanding of the structure–activity relationships of natural products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/np/d4np00009a?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141441830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The dichapetalins and dichapetalin-type compounds: structural diversity, bioactivity, and future research perspectives†","authors":"","doi":"10.1039/d3np00039g","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00039g","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Covering mainly from 2013 up to 2023 with relevant references to work done before 2013</div></div><div><div>First reported in 1995, the dichapetalins and analogous compounds constitute a novel class of natural dammarane-type merotriterpenoids characterized by their unique 2-phenylpyrano moiety annellated to ring A of the dammarane skeleton. They have been reported from only two genera: <em>Dichapetalum</em> (Dichapetalaceae) and <em>Phyllanthus</em> (Phyllanthaceae). About 100 novel dichapetalins and dichapetalin-type compounds, including the acutissimatriterpenes and their antitumour and other bioactivities have been reported. In the present review, we cover the distribution, ethnobotanical and medicinal importance and the diversity of secondary metabolites reported from the two genera <em>Dichapetalum</em> and <em>Phyllanthus</em> from 2013 to date, with appropriate reference to relevant information prior to 2013. We also propose and discuss possible biosynthetic pathways, antitumour activity against a broad range of human and murine cancer cell lines, structure activity relationships, and other biological activities and mechanisms of action. Finally, the review deals with future perspectives which include expansion of the structural diversity and bioactivity scope, possible simplification of the structural complexity of the compounds to enhance their drug-likeness, <em>in silico</em> studies, and continuation of the search for new dichapetalins and dichapetalin-type compounds from the over 200 <em>Dichapetalum</em> and over 1200 <em>Phyllanthus</em> species yet to be investigated. It is envisaged that the present review will stimulate further multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141496403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating the extent of adulteration of the popular herbs black cohosh, echinacea, elder berry, ginkgo, and turmeric – its challenges and limitations","authors":"Nilüfer Orhan , Stefan Gafner , Mark Blumenthal","doi":"10.1039/d4np00014e","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d4np00014e","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Covering: up to July 2023</div></div><div><div>Botanical natural medicinal products and dietary supplements are utilized globally for their positive impacts on health and wellness. However, the effectiveness and safety of botanical products can be compromised by unintentional or intentional adulteration. The presence of adulterated botanical ingredients in the global market has been documented in the published literature but a key question, namely what the extent of adulteration is, remains to be answered. This review aims to estimate the prevalence of adulteration in preparations made from black cohosh rhizome, echinacea root or herb, elder berry, ginkgo leaf, and turmeric root/rhizome. According to the information provided in the 78 publications retrieved for this paper, 818 of 2995 samples were reported to be adulterated and/or mislabeled. Ginkgo leaf samples (<em>n</em> = 533) had the highest adulteration rate with 56.7%, followed by black cohosh rhizome (<em>n</em> = 322) samples with 42.2%, echinacea root/herb (<em>n</em> = 200) with 28.5%, elder berry (<em>n</em> = 695) with 17.1%, and turmeric root/rhizome (<em>n</em> = 1247) with 16.5%. Products sold as licensed or registered herbal medicines were found to have a lower risk of adulteration compared to products sold as dietary/food supplements. The data show that the adulteration rate substantially differs from one ingredient to the other. Due to the significant limitations of the available data upon which the estimated extent of adulteration is based, and the rapidly changing botanical dietary supplement market, conclusions from the five herbs examined in this publication cannot be applied to other botanicals traded in the global market. However, the data clearly show that a substantial portion of the botanical dietary supplements do not contain what is claimed on their labels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/np/d4np00014e?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141896141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlismari Oliveira Grundmann , Juan Guzman , Andreas Vilcinskas , Mônica Tallarico Pupo
{"title":"The insect microbiome is a vast source of bioactive small molecules†","authors":"Carlismari Oliveira Grundmann , Juan Guzman , Andreas Vilcinskas , Mônica Tallarico Pupo","doi":"10.1039/d3np00054k","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00054k","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Covering: September 1964 to June 2023</p></div><div><p>Bacteria and fungi living in symbiosis with insects have been studied over the last sixty years and found to be important sources of bioactive natural products. Not only classic producers of secondary metabolites such as <em>Streptomyces</em> and other members of the phylum Actinobacteria but also numerous bacteria from the phyla Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and an impressive array of fungi (usually pathogenic) serve as the source of a structurally diverse number of small molecules with important biological activities including antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antiparasitic and specific enzyme inhibitors. The insect niche is often the exclusive provider of microbes producing unique types of biologically active compounds such as gerumycins, pederin, dinactin, and formicamycins. However, numerous insects still have not been described taxonomically, and in most cases, the study of their microbiota is completely unexplored. In this review, we present a comprehensive survey of 553 natural products produced by microorganisms isolated from insects by collating and classifying all the data according to the type of compound (rather than the insect or microbial source). The analysis of the correlations among the metadata related to insects, microbial partners, and their produced compounds provides valuable insights into the intricate dynamics between insects and their symbionts as well as the impact of their metabolites on these relationships. Herein, we focus on the chemical structure, biosynthesis, and biological activities of the most relevant compounds.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139970036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chao-Yi Wang , Jia-Qi Hu , De-Gao Wang , Yue-Zhong Li , Changsheng Wu
{"title":"Recent advances in discovery and biosynthesis of natural products from myxobacteria: an overview from 2017 to 2023","authors":"Chao-Yi Wang , Jia-Qi Hu , De-Gao Wang , Yue-Zhong Li , Changsheng Wu","doi":"10.1039/d3np00062a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00062a","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Covering: 2017.01 to 2023.11</p></div><div><p>Natural products biosynthesized by myxobacteria are appealing due to their sophisticated chemical skeletons, remarkable biological activities, and intriguing biosynthetic enzymology. This review aims to systematically summarize the advances in the discovery methods, new structures, and bioactivities of myxobacterial NPs reported in the period of 2017–2023. In addition, the peculiar biosynthetic pathways of several structural families are also highlighted.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139928963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Giovanni Andrea Vitale , Christian Geibel , Vidit Minda , Mingxun Wang , Allegra T. Aron , Daniel Petras
{"title":"Connecting metabolome and phenotype: recent advances in functional metabolomics tools for the identification of bioactive natural products","authors":"Giovanni Andrea Vitale , Christian Geibel , Vidit Minda , Mingxun Wang , Allegra T. Aron , Daniel Petras","doi":"10.1039/d3np00050h","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00050h","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Covering: 1995 to 2023</p></div><div><p>Advances in bioanalytical methods, particularly mass spectrometry, have provided valuable molecular insights into the mechanisms of life. Non-targeted metabolomics aims to detect and (relatively) quantify all observable small molecules present in a biological system. By comparing small molecule abundances between different conditions or timepoints in a biological system, researchers can generate new hypotheses and begin to understand causes of observed phenotypes. Functional metabolomics aims to investigate the functional roles of metabolites at the scale of the metabolome. However, most functional metabolomics studies rely on indirect measurements and correlation analyses, which leads to ambiguity in the precise definition of functional metabolomics. In contrast, the field of natural products has a history of identifying the structures and bioactivities of primary and specialized metabolites. Here, we propose to expand and reframe functional metabolomics by integrating concepts from the fields of natural products and chemical biology. We highlight emerging functional metabolomics approaches that shift the focus from correlation to physical interactions, and we discuss how this allows researchers to uncover causal relationships between molecules and phenotypes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139728489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jonas Motter , Caecilie M. M. Benckendorff , Sarah Westarp , Peter Sunde-Brown , Peter Neubauer , Anke Kurreck , Gavin J. Miller
{"title":"Purine nucleoside antibiotics: recent synthetic advances harnessing chemistry and biology","authors":"Jonas Motter , Caecilie M. M. Benckendorff , Sarah Westarp , Peter Sunde-Brown , Peter Neubauer , Anke Kurreck , Gavin J. Miller","doi":"10.1039/d3np00051f","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00051f","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Covering: 2019 to 2023</p></div><div><p>Nucleoside analogues represent one of the most important classes of small molecule pharmaceuticals and their therapeutic development is successfully established within oncology and for the treatment of viral infections. However, there are currently no nucleoside analogues in clinical use for the management of bacterial infections. Despite this, a significant number of clinically recognised nucleoside analogues are known to possess some antibiotic activity, thereby establishing a potential source for new therapeutic discovery in this area. Furthermore, given the rise in antibiotic resistance, the discovery of new clinical candidates remains an urgent global priority and natural product-derived nucleoside analogues may also present a rich source of discovery space for new modalities. This Highlight, covering work published from 2019 to 2023, presents a current perspective surrounding the synthesis of natural purine nucleoside antibiotics. By amalgamating recent efforts from synthetic chemistry with advances in biosynthetic understanding and the use of recombinant enzymes, prospects towards different structural classes of purines are detailed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139400948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hot off the Press","authors":"Robert A. Hill , Andrew Sutherland","doi":"10.1039/d4np90026j","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d4np90026j","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A personal selection of 32 recent papers is presented covering various aspects of current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products, such as penihemeroterpenoid A from <em>Penicillium herquei</em>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141178289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bacterial cyclophane-containing RiPPs from radical SAM enzymes","authors":"Chin-Soon Phan , Brandon I. Morinaka","doi":"10.1039/d3np00030c","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00030c","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Covering: 2016 to 2023</p></div><div><p>Ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs) continue to be a rich source of chemically diverse and bioactive peptide natural products. In recent years, cyclophane-containing RiPP natural products and their biosynthetic pathways have been more frequently encountered. This highlight will focus on bacterial monoaryl cyclophane-containing RiPPs. This class of RiPPs is produced by radical SAM/SPASM enzymes that form a crosslink between the aromatic ring and sidechain of two amino acid residues of the precursor peptide. Selected natural products from these pathways exhibit specific antibacterial activity against gram-negative pathogens. The approaches used to discover these pathways and products will be described and categorized as natural product-first or enzyme-first. The breadth of ring systems formed by the enzymes, enzyme mechanism, and recent reports of synthetic methods for constructing these ring systems will also be presented. Bacterial cyclophane-containing RiPPs and their biosynthetic enzymes represent an untapped source of scaffolds for drug discovery and tools for synthetic biology.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138476271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Léa Barreda , Céline Brosse , Stéphanie Boutet , François Perreau , Loïc Rajjou , Loïc Lepiniec , Massimiliano Corso
{"title":"Specialized metabolite modifications in Brassicaceae seeds and plants: diversity, functions and related enzymes","authors":"Léa Barreda , Céline Brosse , Stéphanie Boutet , François Perreau , Loïc Rajjou , Loïc Lepiniec , Massimiliano Corso","doi":"10.1039/d3np00043e","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d3np00043e","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Covering: up to 2023</p></div><div><p>Specialized metabolite (SM) modifications and/or decorations, corresponding to the addition or removal of functional groups (<em>e.g.</em> hydroxyl, methyl, glycosyl or acyl group) to SM structures, contribute to the huge diversity of structures, activities and functions of seed and plant SMs. This review summarizes available knowledge (up to 2023) on SM modifications in Brassicaceae and their contribution to SM plasticity. We give a comprehensive overview on enzymes involved in the addition or removal of these functional groups. Brassicaceae, including model (<em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em>) and crop (<em>Brassica napus</em>, <em>Camelina sativa</em>) plant species, present a large diversity of plant and seed SMs, which makes them valuable models to study SM modifications. In this review, particular attention is given to the environmental plasticity of SM and relative modification and/or decoration enzymes. Furthermore, a spotlight is given to SMs and related modification enzymes in seeds of Brassicaceae species. Seeds constitute a large reservoir of beneficial SMs and are one of the most important dietary sources, providing more than half of the world's intake of dietary proteins, oil and starch. The seed tissue- and stage-specific expressions of <em>A. thaliana</em> genes involved in SM modification are presented and discussed in the context of available literature. Given the major role in plant phytochemistry, biology and ecology, SM modifications constitute a subject of study contributing to the research and development in agroecology, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industrial sectors.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":94,"journal":{"name":"Natural Product Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":11.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139696499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}