Chemistry and the Potential Antiviral, Anticancer, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Cardiotonic Steroids Derived from Toads
Hesham R. El-Seedi,
Nermeen Yosri,
Bishoy El-Aarag,
Shaymaa H. Mahmoud,
Ahmed Zayed,
Ming Du,
Aamer Saeed,
Syed G. Musharraf,
Islam M. El-Garawani,
Mohamed R. Habib,
Haroon Elrasheid Tahir,
Momtaz M. Hegab,
Xiaobo Zou,
Zhiming Guo,
Thomas Efferth,
Shaden A. M. Khalifa
Affiliations
Hesham R. El-Seedi
International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Nermeen Yosri
Chemistry Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (RIMAP), Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62514, Egypt
Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, Tanta University, Elguish Street, Tanta 31527, Egypt
Ming Du
National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116024, China
Aamer Saeed
Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Syed G. Musharraf
H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
Medical Malacology Department, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Imbaba, Giza 12411, Egypt
Haroon Elrasheid Tahir
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Momtaz M. Hegab
Chemistry Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (RIMAP), Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62514, Egypt
Xiaobo Zou
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Zhiming Guo
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Thomas Efferth
Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Shaden A. M. Khalifa
Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, SE 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Cardiotonic steroids (CTS) were first documented by ancient Egyptians more than 3000 years ago. Cardiotonic steroids are a group of steroid hormones that circulate in the blood of amphibians and toads and can also be extracted from natural products such as plants, herbs, and marines. It is well known that cardiotonic steroids reveal effects against congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation; therefore, the term "cardiotonic" has been coined. Cardiotonic steroids are divided into two distinct groups: cardenolides (plant-derived) and bufadienolides (mainly of animal origin). Cardenolides have an unsaturated five-membered lactone ring attached to the steroid nucleus at position 17; bufadienolides have a doubly unsaturated six-membered lactone ring. Cancer is a leading cause of mortality in humans all over the world. In 2040, the global cancer load is expected to be 28.4 million cases, which would be a 47% increase from 2020. Moreover, viruses and inflammations also have a very nebative impact on human health and lead to mortality. In the current review, we focus on the chemistry, antiviral and anti-cancer activities of cardiotonic steroids from the naturally derived (toads) venom to combat these chronic devastating health problems. The databases of different research engines (Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, and Sci-Finder) were screened using different combinations of the following terms: “cardiotonic steroids”, “anti-inflammatory”, “antiviral”, “anticancer”, “toad venom”, “bufadienolides”, and “poison chemical composition”. Various cardiotonic steroids were isolated from diverse toad species and exhibited superior anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral activities in in vivo and in vitro models such as marinobufagenin, gammabufotalin, resibufogenin, and bufalin. These steroids are especially difficult to identify. However, several compounds and their bioactivities were identified by using different molecular and biotechnological techniques. Biotechnology is a new tool to fully or partially generate upscaled quantities of natural products, which are otherwise only available at trace amounts in organisms.
