鬼臼毒素生物合成研究进展

鬼臼毒素(podophyllotoxin)是一种成功商品化的天然木脂素,其衍生物依托泊苷(etoposide)、替尼泊苷(teniposide)等在临床上广泛应用于抗肿瘤、抗病毒治疗.植物提取是鬼臼毒素的主要来源,面对野生资源压力,人们分别开展了植物野生变栽培、植物细胞或器官培养、化学全合成等研究,以扩大鬼臼毒素来源.鬼臼毒素生物合成研究是开展植物规范化栽培和代谢工程的重要前提.20多年来尤其是近10年来,鬼臼毒素生物合成研究进展迅速,但鬼臼毒素的下游代谢以及整个合成途径基因水平的评述仍不足,因此作者专门针对鬼臼毒素的生物合成,对相关文献尤其是近10年的文献进行综述,重点介绍其合成途径关键环节的过程、主要产物、酶的特点与功能、已报道的酶编码基因等内容,以合理推测和概括鬼臼毒素的生物合成途径,同时对目前研究仍存在的问题和将来研究方向进行了讨论.

Review on biosynthesis of podophyllotoxin

Podophyllotoxin (PTOX) is an extremely important plant-derived natural product, of which derivatives, like etoposide and teniposide, have been widely applied in therapies for cancers and venereal wart. A durable, intense plant extraction of podophyllotoxin posed a severe pressure on wild resources; researchers consequently sought to explore new sources, like cultivation, plant cell or organ culture, and chemical synthesis. Understanding biosynthesis of PTOX is one of the basic necessary steps for standard cultivation of medicinal plants and metabolite engineering. An important progress has been made in this field during the last two decades, particularly in the last ten years. Although a number of reviews concerning the related topic have existed, we specifically deal with biosynthesis of podophyllotoxin with an emphasis on the literatures of the past decade, highlighting characterization of genes encoding synthetic enzymes and down-stream metabolism of PTOX. The present review focuses on several key biosynthesis processes, important metabolites, function of related enzymes, and characterization of cDNA encoding the enzymes. Finally, the author proposed a hypothetical biosynthetic scheme of podophyllotoxin and perspectives.