The promising feature of the fungi from the marine environment as a source for anticancer agents belongs to the fungal ability to produce several compounds and enzymes which contribute effectively against the cancer cells growth. L-asparaginase acts by degrading the asparagine which is the main substance of cancer cells. Moreover, the compounds produced during the secondary metabolic process acts by changing the cell morphology and DNA fragmentation leading to apoptosis of the cancer cells. The current review has analyed the available information on the anticancer activity of the fungi based on the data extracted from the Scopus database. The systematic and bibliometric analysis revealed many of the properties available for the fungi to be the best candidate as a source of anticancer drugs. Doxorubicin, actinomycin, and flavonoids are among the primary chemical drug used for cancer treatment. In comparison, the most anticancer compounds producing fungi are Aspergillusniger, A.fumigatusA.oryzae, A.flavus, A. versicolor, A.terreus,Penicilliumcitrinum, P.chrysogenum, and P.polonicum and have been used for investigating the anticancer activity against the uterine cervix, pancreatic cancer, ovary, breast, colon, and colorectal cancer.
Fungi, especially edible mushrooms, are considered as high-quality food with nutritive and functional values. They are of considerable interest and have been used in the synthesis of nutraceutical supplements due to their medicinal properties and economic significance. Specific fungal groups, including predominantly filamentous endophytic fungi from Ascomycete phylum and several Basidiomycetes, produce secondary metabolites (SMs) with bioactive properties that are involved in the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. These beneficial fungi, while high in protein and important fat contents, are also a great source of several minerals and vitamins, in particular B vitamins that play important roles in carbohydrate and fat metabolism and the maintenance of the nervous system. This review article will summarize and discuss the abilities of fungi to produce antioxidant, anticancer, antiobesity, and antidiabetic molecules while also reviewing the evidence from the last decade on the importance of research in fungi related products with direct and indirect impact on human health.
Candida glabrata is a yeast of increasing medical relevance, particularly in critically ill patients. It is the second most isolated Candida species associated with invasive candidiasis (IC) behind C. albicans. The attributed higher incidence is primarily due to an increase in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) population, cancer, and diabetic patients. The elderly population and the frequent use of indwelling medical devices are also predisposing factors. This work aimed to review various virulence factors that facilitate the survival of pathogenic C. glabrata in IC. The available published research articles related to the pathogenicity of C. glabrata were retrieved and reviewed from four credible databases, mainly Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Scopus. The articles highlighted many virulence factors associated with pathogenicity in C. glabrata, including adherence to susceptible host surfaces, evading host defences, replicative ageing, and producing hydrolytic enzymes (e.g., phospholipases, proteases, and haemolysins). The factors facilitate infection initiation. Other virulent factors include iron regulation and genetic mutations. Accordingly, biofilm production, tolerance to high-stress environments, resistance to neutrophil killings, and development of resistance to antifungal drugs, notably to fluconazole and other azole derivatives, were reported. The review provided evident pathogenic mechanisms and antifungal resistance associated with C. glabrata in ensuring its sustenance and survival.
Aflatoxins (AFs) are highly toxic and cancer-causing compounds, predominantly synthesized by the Aspergillus species. AFs biosynthesis is a lengthy process that requires as minimum as 30 genes grouped inside 75 kilobytes (kB) of gene clusters, which are regulated by specific transcription factors, including aflR, aflS, and some general transcription factors. This paper summarizes the status of research on characterizing structural and regulatory genes associated with AF production and their roles in aflatoxigenic fungi, particularly Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, and enhances the current understanding of AFs that adversely affect humans and animals with a great emphasis on toxicity and preventive methods.
Phytophthora meadii (McRae) is a hemibiotrophic oomycete fungus that infects tender nuts, growing buds, and crown regions, resulting in fruit, bud, and crown rot diseases in arecanut (Areca catechu L.), respectively. Among them, fruit rot disease (FRD) causes serious economic losses that are borne by the growers, making it the greatest yield-limiting factor in arecanut crops. FRD has been known to occur in traditional growing areas since 1910, particularly in Malnad and coastal tracts of Karnataka. Systemic surveys were conducted on the disease several decades ago. The design of appropriate management approaches to curtail the impacts of the disease requires information on the spatial distribution of the risks posed by the disease. In this study, we used exploratory survey data to determine areas that are most at risk. Point pattern (spatial autocorrelation and Ripley's K function) analyses confirmed the existence of moderate clustering across sampling points and optimized hotspots of FRD were determined. Geospatial techniques such as inverse distance weighting (IDW), ordinary kriging (OK), and indicator kriging (IK) were performed to predict the percent severity rates at unsampled sites. IDW and OK generated identical maps, whereby the FRD severity rates were higher in areas adjacent to the Western Ghats and the seashore. Additionally, IK was used to identify both disease-prone and disease-free areas in Karnataka. After fitting the semivariograms with different models, the exponential model showed the best fit with the semivariogram. Using this model information, OK and IK maps were generated. The identified FRD risk areas in our study, which showed higher disease probability rates (>20%) exceeding the threshold level, need to be monitored with the utmost care to contain and reduce the further spread of the disease in Karnataka.
This scoping review is aimed at the application of the metabolomics platform to dissect key metabolites and their intermediates to observe the regulatory mechanisms of starvation-induced autophagy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Four research papers were shortlisted in this review following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. We observed a commonly shared pathway undertaken by S. cerevisiae under nutritional stress. Targeted and untargeted metabolomics was applied in either of these studies using varying platforms resulting in the annotation of several different observable metabolites. We saw a commonly shared pathway undertaken by S. cerevisiae under nutritional stress. Following nitrogen starvation, the concentration of cellular nucleosides was altered as a result of autophagic RNA degradation. Additionally, it is also found that autophagy replenishes amino acid pools to sustain macromolecule synthesis. Furthermore, in glucose starvation, nucleosides were broken down into carbonaceous metabolites that are being funneled into the non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway. The ribose salvage allows for the survival of starved yeast. Moreover, acute glucose starvation showed autophagy to be involved in maintaining ATP/energy levels. We highlighted the practicality of metabolomics as a tool to better understand the underlying mechanisms involved to maintain homeostasis by recycling degradative products to ensure the survival of S. cerevisiae under starvation. The application of metabolomics has extended the scope of autophagy and provided newer intervention targets against cancer as well as neurodegenerative diseases in which autophagy is implicated.
Mushrooms are popular due to the nutrition contents in the fruit bodies and are relatively easy to cultivate. Mushrooms from the white-rot fungi group can be cultivated on agricultural biomass such as sawdust, paddy straw, wheat straw, oil palm frond, oil palm empty fruit bunches, oil palm bark, corn silage, corn cobs, banana leaves, coconut husk, pineapple peel, pineapple leaves, cotton stalk, sugarcane bagasse and various other agricultural biomass. Mushrooms are exceptional decomposers that play important roles in the food web to balance the ecosystems. They can uptake various minerals, including essential and non-essential minerals provided by the substrates. However, the agricultural biomass used for mushroom cultivation is sometimes polluted by heavy metals because of the increased anthropogenic activities occurring in line with urbanisation. Due to their role in mycoremediation, the mushrooms also absorb pollutants from the substrates into their fruit bodies. This article reviews the sources of agricultural biomass for mushroom cultivation that could track how the environmental heavy metals are accumulated and translocated into mushroom fruit bodies. This review also discusses the possible health risks from prolonged uptakes of heavy metal-contaminated mushrooms to highlight the importance of early contaminants' detection for food security.
Candida auris, a newly emerging healthcare-associated yeast pathogen from the Metschnikowiaceae family, was first described in the ear canal of an elderly Japanese patient in 2009. The yeast is one of the causative agents of candidemia, which has been linked with nosocomial outbreaks and high mortality rates in healthcare facilities worldwide. Since its first isolation, the occurrence of C. auris in six continents has becomes a grave concern for the healthcare professionals and scientific community. Recent reports showed the identification of five geographically distinct clades and high rates of antifungal resistance associated with C. auris. Till date, there are no effective treatment options, and standardized measures for prevention and control of C. auris infection in healthcare facilities. This leads to frequent therapeutic failures and complicates the eradication of C. auris infection in healthcare facilities. Thus, this review focuses on the recent understanding of the epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis, transmission and prevention and control strategies of C. auris infection in healthcare facilities in Asia.
The rapid emergence of resistant bacteria is occurring worldwide, endangering the efficacy of antibiotics. Hence, there is a need to search for new sources of antibiotics that either exhibit novel structures or express a new mechanism of action. The lichen Usnea, with its wide range of unique, biologically potent secondary metabolites, may solve this problem. In this study, Usnea species were collected in the Northern Philippines, identified through combined morphological and biochemical characterization, and tested for antimicrobial activities against the multidrug-resistant ESKAPE pathogens, i.e., Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter cloacae, two standard antibiotic-sensitive test bacteria, and a yeast. A total of 46 lichen specimens were collected and later identified as Usnea baileyi (10), U. diffracta (10), U. glabrata (12), U. longissima (4), and U. rubicunda (10). The results show that the crude extracts of the Usnea species exhibited promising in vitro inhibitory activities against standard antibiotic-sensitive (E. faecalis ATCC 29212) and multidrug-resistant (methicillin-resistant S. aureus and E. faecalis) Gram-positive bacteria. Additionally, lichen compounds of representative specimens per species were identified and profiled using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The detection of lichen acids (LA) via HPLC showed the presence of 24 peaks of lichen acids. TLC-bioautography identified the bioactive lichen acids as alectronic acid, connorstictic acid, consalazinic acid, diffractaic acid, echinocarpic acid, erythrin acid, galbinic acid, hypoconstictic acid, hyposalazinic acid, hypostictic acid, lobaric acid, menegazzaic acid, micareic acid, pannarin, salazinic acid, stictic acid, and usnic acid. Our study highlighted the wide spectrum of opportunities for using lichens for the discovery of potential antimicrobial agents.
Calamus castaneus is a common rattan palm species in the tropical forests of Peninsular Malaysia and is noticeable by the yellow-based spines that cover the stems. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of fungal endophytes within C. castaneus spines and whether they inhibit the growth of fungal pathogens. Twenty-one genera with 40 species of fungal endophytes were isolated and identified from rattan palm spines. Based on molecular identification, the most common isolates recovered from the spines were Colletotrichum (n = 19) and Diaporthe spp. (n = 18), followed by Phyllosticta spp., Xylaria sp., Trichoderma spp., Helminthosporium spp., Penicillium spp., Fusarium spp., Neopestalotiopsis spp., Arthrinium sp., Cyphellophora sp., Cladosporium spp., Curvularia sp., Bionectria sp., and Acremonium spp. Non-sporulating fungi were also identified, namely Nemania primolutea, Pidoplitchkoviella terricola, Muyocopron laterale, Acrocalymma fici, Acrocalymma medicaginis, and Endomelanconiopsis endophytica. The isolation of these endophytes showed that the spines harbor endophytic fungi. Most of the fungal endophytes inhibited the growth of several plant pathogenic fungi, with 68% of the interactions resulting in mutual inhibition, producing a clear inhibition zone of <2 mm. Our findings demonstrate the potential of the fungal endophytes from C. castaneus spines as biocontrol agents.